The Northern Territory is a lot like North Carolina, Queensland like Western Norway and the Australian Capital Territory like New Hampshire. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation has unveiled a massive wellbeing matching machine able to match living standards throughout the world in eight categories, including safety, health, income and access to services.

Australia's clear cut winner is the Australian Capital Territory, scoring 10 out of 10 for income, 9.6 for jobs and 9.5 for the environment.

Australia's leading place to live: Canberra. Credit:Graham Tidy

NSW and Victoria are hard to separate, both scoring highly in most categories. NSW does better in income, scoring 7.1, compared to 6.4. Victoria is rated as being better for jobs (8.5 compared to 8.3) and better for safety (9.6 against 9.2).

The ACT's average income is the highest of any of the 300 developed nation regions identified by the OECD.