The 2018 FIFA World Cup groups

The most obvious place to start is with income. Using GDP per capita, let’s take a look at the richest and poorest groups. Group F is the richest group, containing two wealthy European nations (Germany and Sweden), plus two relatively wealthy countries from North America and Asia (Mexico and South Korea). Group H is the poorest group, despite containing one of the world’s richest countries, Japan. Looking at individual countries, Switzerland is the richest at the World Cup, with a GDP per capita of $60,490, while Senegal is the poorest at just $2,430.

If instead we use total GDP, for an indication of economic strength, we again find that Group F is the richest group, thanks largely to the Economic might of Germany, and the large population of Mexico. Again Group H is the poorest, despite containing the largest economy at the World Cup in Japan. The smallest economy represented at the World Cup is Iceland, roughly 342 times smaller than Japan.

Next let’s take a look at health, for which I’m using life expectancy. We find that Group F is the healthiest, with an average life expectancy of 80.6 years followed closely by Group C with 80.3 years. Group D is the least healthy, with an average life expectancy of 72.9 years. The healthiest country is Japan, with an average life expectancy of 83.7 years, while at just 54.5 years, Nigeria is the least healthy.

Turning next to education, we find that Group C and Group F are the most educated, with citizens of these groups having an average of 11.6 years of education. The least educated group is Group H, with an average of 8.7 years of education. The most educated country at the World Cup is Switzerland (13.4 years), while the least educated is Senegal (just 2.8 years). Surprisingly, given its decision to leave the EU, England is the second highest educated country at the World Cup!

Given what we’ve seen above, it was expected that Group F would have the highest value for the Human Development Index, and that’s exactly what we find, although it was a very close call with Group C. Group H again appears to be the least developed.

With the highest income, largest economy, longest life expectancy, joint-highest education, and the highest HDI, Group F is the clear winner of the Development World Cup. The final of the Development World Cup would be played between Switzerland and Australia, who both have HDI values of .939 and score highly in each of the individual development indicators.