Displayed on a notional scale of one to 10, rain-washed Ireland emerges with a gleaming top score of 8.33, well ahead of second-place Switzerland, which manages 8.07. The U.K. languishes in 29th place on 6.92, narrowly in front of South Korea (6.88). Zimbabwe, racked by political insecurity and hunger, is rated the gloomiest, picking up only 3.89 points. The figures may be reminiscent of a global version of the Eurovision Song Contest, but the intention behind the study — to find the best country to live in during 2005 — is serious as well as competitive.

“Although rising incomes and expanded individual choices are highly valued,” the report says, “some of the factors associated with modernization — such as the breakdown of traditional institutions and the erosion of family values — in part offset its positive impact. “Ireland wins because it successfully combines the most desirable elements of the new (the fourth highest gross domestic product per head in the world in 2005, low unemployment, political liberties) with the preservation of certain cozy elements of the old, such as stable family and community life.”

Ireland’s lifestyle victory represents rapid promotion for a country that until the 1990s suffered from large-scale emigration of citizens in search of work abroad. Membership in the European Union has, however, transformed its prospects. Ireland’s GDP per person — a standard, comparative economic measure — overtook the U.K.’s several years ago: Ireland’s is now $36,790, compared with $31,150 in the U.K. The U.K.’s reputation in Europe also takes a beating. The U.K. ranked the lowest out of the 15 members of the pre-enlargement E.U., chiefly due to the high rates of social and family breakdown recorded in official statistics.

Britain’s other large European partners, such as France and Germany, occupying 25th and 26th positions respectively, fared little better. But smaller states, including Sweden, Italy, Denmark and Spain, all appeared in the top 10. The U.S., which has the second-highest GDP after diminutive Luxembourg, slipped to 13th place in the survey. Other big economies did even worse. China was in the lower half of the league at 60th, while Russia, where GDP is only $9,810, scraped in toward the bottom at 105th.

“The results of the surveys have been attracting growing interest in recent years,” the magazine says. “It has long been accepted that material well-being alone does not adequately measure quality of life. Money matters, of course, but surveys suggest that over the decades big increases in income have translated into only a modest rise in satisfaction.”

The Economist’s complex equations used to produce the table gave most weight to matters of health, well-being, political stability and security. Less importance was attached to climate, job security, political freedom and gender equality. The Economist’s survey, published as “The World in 2005,” is in its 17th year.

Other organizations have tried to draw up comparative tables based simply on more subjective surveys about happiness. The results do not reflect the Economist’s priorities. The New Scientist magazine last year published a survey that ranked Nigeria as having the highest percentage of people who said they were happy, followed by Mexico and Venezuela. The citizens of Russia, Armenia and Romania were the most miserable.

The embarrassment caused by the misconduct of U.N. forces in devastated communities around the world — including Haiti, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Cambodia, East Timor and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) — has become an increasingly high-profile, political problem.

Allegations have recently surfaced that troops sent to police Liberia were regularly having sex with girls as young as age 12, sometimes in the mission’s administrative buildings. In the DRC, peacekeepers were said to have offered abandoned orphans small gifts — as little as two eggs from their rations, says the report — for sexual encounters. Used condoms, an inquiry by the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services discovered, littered the perimeter of military camps and guard posts.

Alarm about the involvement of U.N. peacekeepers in sex trafficking first arose during the 1990s when investigators found soldiers were customers in brothels run in Bosnia and Kosovo that relied on women sold into forced prostitution. One recent estimate suggested up to 2,000 women have been coerced into sex slavery in Kosovo.

Thursday’s report, by Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein, was commissioned to reform the way in which troops behave on U.N. missions. It was also aimed at devising a new investigative framework to detect and deter soldiers exploiting young victims, who are often impoverished refugees.

The U.N. is coordinating 17 mandated peacekeeping operations around the globe, involving a deployment of 75,000 personnel from scores of contributing nations.

“Despite the distinguished role that United Nations peacekeeping personnel have played over the last half-century,” the study notes, “there regrettably will always be those who violate codes of conduct and dishonor the many who have given their lives in the cause of peace. Sexual exploitation and abuse by military, civilian police and civilian peacekeeping personnel [are] not a new phenomenon.”

But the study, released at the U.N.’s headquarters in New York, adds: “The reality of prostitution and other sexual exploitation in a peacekeeping context is profoundly disturbing because the United Nations has been mandated to enter into a broken society to help it, not to breach the trust placed in it by the local population.” There have even been reports of pedophilia committed by peacekeepers.

Titled “A Comprehensive Strategy to Eliminate Future Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations,” the document insists that U.N. interventions operate on the principle that they will not “in any way increase the suffering of vulnerable sectors of [a] population.”

In the DRC, the report says, “sexual exploitation and abuse mostly involves the exchange of sex for money (on average $1-$3 per encounter), for food (for immediate consumption or to barter later) or for jobs.”

Sexual exploitation by peacekeepers may threaten the security of missions, the study suggests, exposing them “to blackmail and violent retaliation.” It also speeds the transmission of HIV/AIDS.

“Victims frequently suffer from psychological trauma as a result of their experiences. Victims and abandoned peacekeeper babies may face stigmatization by their families and communities, which deprive them of all support.”

One possible precaution, Prince Zeid contemplates, is to ban all sexual relations between local populations and members of resident U.N. military missions in high-risk areas. This would “protect the reputation and credibility of the mission” and safeguard “a local population highly vulnerable to abuse.” Another solution might be to encourage better recreational facilities for soldiers off duty. “Sites could [contain] sports areas, free internet facilities and subsidized telephone lines to facilitate contact with family and friends.”

An increase in the percentage of female peacekeeping personnel would help, the report observes. “The presence of more women in a mission, especially at senior levels, will help to promote an environment that discourages sexual exploitation and abuse.”

But the report’s more radical recommendations are contained in proposals to overhaul the investigation of allegations of rape and abuse. Courts-martial, it says, should be set up within mission areas for “serious offenses” to ensure immediate access to witnesses and evidence. They would demonstrate that there was “no impunity for acts of sexual exploitation and abuse by members of military contingents.” At present many of the accused return to their home countries, where prosecutions are rarely pursued. There have been exceptions. In the DRC, France recently jailed one U.N. civilian employee for rape and making pornographic films. South Africa and Morocco have also taken action against others.

Soldiers found guilty should have their pay docked and be made financially accountable, the report says. It adds that there should be “DNA and other tests to establish paternity” and that fathers should be required to provide child support.