Everybody knows Canada is among the very best countries in the world to live in...well, at least Canadians do. In truth, Canada's international cred is left a little wanting (not when it comes to the sexiness of our national leader though) but that could change thanks to a recent world-wide ranking which has placed Canada among the best countries to live in.

Within the UN's annual Human Development Index (HDI), a report that delved into the livability of close to 200 countries, Canada ranked #9 overall, tying with New Zealand.

All sorts of data is used to by the HDI study, including a country's standard of living, the representation of women in government, life expectancy, expected years of schooling for the average citizen, and the gross national income per capita, among many other categories.

While you have to be proud of our dear nation for getting a top ten spot, you can't ignore that Canada actually dropped in the rankings compared to last year. In 2013, Canada was ranked #8 most livable in the world, so this year is a one spot drop.

European nations dominated the upper tiers of the HDI, with Norway taking the #1 ranking (the same as last year) and Switzerland, Denmark, and the Netherlands in the top five too. Australia received the #2 spot, the only outlier in the top five.

But you wouldn't believe who beat out Canada in the rankings, being placed directly above the true north strong and free: the United Stated of America.

Yup, 'Merica is apparently a better place to live according to the HDI's rankings, which is a pretty huge surprise to us. Maybe we shouldn't be too surprised though, because the same thing happened last year, with the US getting #7 on the HDI list. But hey, at least we're still the most free country there is.

Hopefully next year, under the leadership of a new government, Canada will jump up a bit in the world livability score. We'll settle with just beating out our neighbor to the south, in all honesty.

Check out the top twenty list of the Human Development Index below, just to see who Canada beat. You can read up on the entire report here.

1. Norway

2. Australia

3. Switzerland

4. Denmark

5. Netherlands

6. Germany

7. Ireland

8. United States

9. Canada & New Zealand

11. Singapore

12. Hong Kong, China (SAR)

13. Liechtenstein

14. Sweden

15. United Kingdom

16. Iceland

17. Republic of Korea

18. Israel

19. Luxembourg

20. Japan