New Zealand falls way behind our neighbours across the Tasman as a healthy country to live in, a major global study has found.

Source: 1 NEWS

New Zealand is 30th in the Global Burden of Disease Study, 20 spots behind Australia which is ranked the 10th healthiest country out of the 188 nations studied.

The study, published in The Lancet looks at the burden of disease, and living standards, measuring death rates and ill health from major diseases, injuries and risk factors to health.

It's related to Sustainable Development Goals and is the most comprehensive worldwide study of its kind to date.

The world's healthiest country is Iceland, followed by Singapore then Sweden, Andora and the UK.

Japan is in 27th place, one spot ahead of the US, with Estonia at 29 and New Zealand just making it into the Top 30 healthiest countries in the world.

Here's the Top 30 list:

1 Iceland

2 Singapore

3 Sweden

4 Andorra

5 UK

6 Finland

7 Spain

8 Netherlands

9 Canada

10 Australia

11 Norway

12 Luxembourg

13 Ireland

14 Malta

15 Germany

16 Denmark

17 Cyprus

18 Belgium

19 Switzerland

20 Italy

21 Brunei

22 Portugal

23 Israel

24 France

25 Slovenia

26 Greece

27 Japan

28 US

29 Estonia