Nordic countries top the list of the 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index published last week. The supposedly mightiest nation on the earth, the United State of America, ranks only ninth.
Interestingly India is well ahead of China in the index, though GDP-wise the country is yet to enter the big league.
The Index compiled by the Singapore-based Legatum Institute finds that the most prosperous nations in the world are not necessarily those that have only a high GDP, but are those that also have happy, healthy, and free citizens. Now in its third year, the Index builds on the previous versions with expanded data and refined analysis and assesses 104 nations covering 90 percent of the worlds population.
The top 10 countries are: 1) Finland 2) Switzerland 3) Sweden 4) Denmark 5) Norway 6) Australia 7) Canada 8) Netherlands 9) United States 10) New Zealand
The bottom 10 countries are: 95) Kenya 96) Algeria 97) Tanzania 98) Nigeria 99) Pakistan 100) Cameroon 101=) Central African Republic 101=) Yemen 103) Sudan 104) Zimbabwe
The following are ten key findings of the Prosperity Index:
1. Prosperous countries are strong across the board. Prosperous countries which lead the Index do well in all nine sub-indexes, indicating that the foundations of prosperity reinforce each other.
2. Entrepreneurs at the micro level need good economic policies at the macro level. Innovation and entrepreneurship are more strongly related to economic fundamentals than any other factor in a society. Aspiring entrepreneurs will often hit a "ceiling" limiting their success if a nations economy is not fundamentally strong.