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October 28, 2009

Finland tops in 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index, U.S. is ninth

SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) – For those who value their freedom of expression as much as health, wealth, and prosperity, then Finland is the place to be, with an index ranking the Nordic nation the best in the world.

The 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index, published on Tuesday and compiled by the Legatum Institute, an independent policy, advocacy and advisory organization, ranked 104 countries which are home to 90 percent of the world's population.

The index is based on a definition of prosperity that combines economic growth with the level of personal freedoms and democracy in a country as well as measures of happiness and quality of life.

With the exception of Switzerland, which came in at number 2, Nordic countries dominated the top 5 slots, with Sweden in third place followed by Denmark and Norway.

The top 10 were all also Western nations, with Australia (6th place) and Canada (7th place) both beating the United States, ranked 9th. Britain came in at number 12.

Here is the actual 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index. It is parsable in many different ways. One really cool feature is that you can choose two countries to compare side-by-side. For example I've selected Finland and the United States to compare. Other countries can be added to the mix too.

Several noteworthy things here.

* The United States is ranked number 1 in Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

* Every single one of the 26 nations who rank higher on the Health ranking have some form of "socialized" medicine as their national health care access system.

* A stunning corrolation between the countries dominating the Legatum Index here and their dominance in other economic indexes which I've written about previously.

* Several public policy ideas considered anathama to American conservatives are practiced in countries which rank higher than us on this index. Socialized healthcare access, high minimum wage, high taxes, etc. And yet... these countries are clearly thriving, economically and otherwise.

Posted by Kevin at October 28, 2009 07:24 AM