For six consecutive years now, the Legatum Institute presents its annual Prosperity Index study. The study is also known as the “happiest and saddest countries in the world”. The logic is that those countries which have a better prosperity rate are happier than those which don’t.
The research measures various areas like Personal Freedom, Entrepreneurship, Governance, Education, Economy, Safety and Security. In addition, the study includes over 140 different countries which is about 96% of the total world population.
The last Prosperity Index shows something very unusual. For the first time in the history of the research, the U.S. are out of the picture. The States could not reach the top 10 and they landed on the 12th spot.
The Happiest
There are many curious trends about this year’s Prosperity Index. The most obvious one is that countries from North Europe, especially those in Scandinavia, are occupying the leading positions on the list. The top spot belongs to Norway. The country is also 1st on the Social Capital list and 2nd on the Economy list. Right behind it are Denmark (2) and Sweden (3). Denmark scored the highest on the Entrepreneurship list, where Sweden is second. At the bottom of the ten happiest countries are Finland (7), the Netherlands (8), Switzerland (9) and Ireland (10). Switzerland has the best Economy rate, but its education ranks barely at the 32nd position.
Two South Pacific countries also managed to reach the top 10. These are Australia (4) and New Zealand (5) which both did well on the Education and Personal Freedom lists. One North American country also found its place among the first. Thanks to its first spot on the Personal Freedom chart, Canada takes the 6th place on the Prosperity Index.
The Saddest
Here we also have a tendency – almost each and every of the saddest countries is located in Africa, including the leader of the list Central African Republic. The country takes the last position on the Prosperity Index. CAR is followed by the Republic of Congo (2) which occupies the 141st spot on the index. Among the other African countries here are also Chad (4), Burundi (6), Togo (7), Zimbabwe (8) and Ethiopia (10). In all those countries, the stability is very low and the violence – extremely high.
On the list of “the saddest countries in the world” are also Afghanistan (3), Haiti (5) and Yemen (9). The war in Afghanistan, the drone attacks in Yemen and the earthquake on Haiti are the main things which have dragged these nations to the bottom of the Prosperity Index.
Where is UAE?
The UAE is also included in the study of the Legatum Institute. The country ranks on the 29th position. Most prosperous is UAE’s economy which takes the 17th spot on the index. The country ranks lower in categories like Personal Freedom and Social Capital.
