Is it possible, at this stage, for geographically large countries with very large populations to move forward in a coherent way?

All of the better places to live, as rated by purchasing power, health, education, what have you, are either geographically small and or have a small population.

China, India, Russia, Brazil, USA - all these big places with big pipulations rank poorly in some number of quality of life indicators.

Australia, Canada, New Zealand aren't without their problems but seem to suffer a less severe case of the issues. And then there's those Scandinavian countries which rate highly.

Why this pattern?