Hong Kong isn't a country, right?

[Deleted]

MSN has an article about the 10 best countries for a newborn and they listed #10 as Hong Kong (USA is #16).  I am aware that Hong Kong is not a typical Chinese city but I am pretty sure it hasn't become its own country.  Other than that I don't find the article very exciting, but you can check it out if you want. 

Here is the article:

America prides itself on being the land of opportunity, where anyone can make a better life for himself. But editors at The Economist are taking exception to that notion.

They have turned to their colleagues at a sister company, the Economist Intelligence Unit, for metrics to determine the best places for babies to be born in 2013.

The Economist used the group’s economic forecasts to 2030 to figure out where children born this year might be, financially and otherwise, when they reach adulthood.

It also looked at a variety of factors -- such as geography, demographics, state of the world economy, personal income and security -- to come up with its conclusions.<!--EndofExcerptMarker-->

According to The Economist, given all those indicators, where is the luckiest place for a baby to be born in 2013?

Here are the top 10 countries for a newborn to have "the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in the years ahead."

1. Switzerland
2. Australia
3. Norway
4. Sweden
5. Denmark
6. Singapore
7. New Zealand
8. Netherlands
9. Canada
10. Hong Kong

"America," according to the magazine, "where babies will inherit the large debts of the boomer generation, languishes back in 16th place."

Nigeria comes in last.

The Economist notes that "despite their economic dynamism," none of the so-called BRIC countries -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- did well on the list, either.

The magazine acknowledges its list has a lot of smaller economies in the top 10.

The current global economic crisis, it says, has also "left a deep imprint" in the eurozone, affecting unemployment and personal security there. The Netherlands was the only eurozone nation to make it into the top 10.

Of course, as with all top 10 lists, a lot of The Economist’s findings are arbitrary.

"Quibblers will, of course, find more holes in all this than there are in a chunk of Swiss cheese," says the magazine, which also notes that, speaking of Swiss cheese, Switzerland rates high on its "yawn index."

And regarding Switerland's dubious standing as the top place to be born, the magazine quotes a line from Orson Welles' villainous character in the classic postwar movie "The Third Man":

"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love -- they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

 

[Deleted]

(comes in to see the answer)

[Deleted]

So it is sort of, kind of a country? I know it has a special designation, gov't., etc. that seperates it from every other city in the country but isn't it wrong to call it a country?
I don't know why I care about this, I just found it odd.

[Deleted]

UN Regions of the World assigns it separately from China, with the special administrative designation. Hard to say 'country' (and don't make China mad), but it is separated out.

030
Eastern Asia
156
China
344
China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49regin.htm

[treschic]

Lurker here Currently, they act as different countries but I believe there is a time set in place when HK will become a part of China. Currently you have to go through customs/immigration when you enter HK and a separate customs/immigration to enter China. It makes for a lot of passport stamps!