Norway has been named the most prosperous country in the world for the sixth year in a row and European countries dominate the top 30 of the annual Prosperity Index

Norway has been named the most prosperous country in the world for the sixth year in a row by a global prosperity ranking, which rates countries on how they perform in areas such as economics, health, education and freedom.

European countries dominate the top 30 of the Prosperity Index, while the UK has jumped three places on last year’s rankings and has been named the most prosperous of all the major EU countries in 2014. It has been placed above Germany at 14th and France at 21st place.

It also warns that the US is “no longer perceived to be the ‘land of the free’” and is placed 21st for the personal freedom, below countries such as Uruguay and Costa Rica.

Following Norway in second place on the overall rankings is Switzerland. New Zealand, which is placed third, is the highest climber of the latest release with its jump up attributed to its economic resurgence.

Almost two thirds of the countries listed in the top 30 are European nations, with 16 of these being EU member states.

Click here to explore the interactive map of the Prosperity Index at Prosperity.com

Think tank and publisher of the index, the Legatum Institute name the UK as a “world leader in entrepreneurship” and credit this as one of the reasons for its rise in the rankings, along with the following:

This, combined with other non-economic factors such as improvements in how people feel about their personal safety (up from 66%-74% compared to 2009), the perception that working hard gets you ahead (up from 78%-84%) and people feeling as though they have more personal freedom (up from 78%-91%), places Britain among the most prosperous countries in the world.

According to the think tank, Russia is the worst performing country in Europe, having fallen seven places to 68th position. Low rankings in governance (113th) and personal freedom (124th) are attributed to the drop in overall ranking.



The graphic by the Legatum Institute below shows the change in rankings for a selection of countries. Nathan Gamester, programme director of the Prosperity Index explains the methodology behind the six-year comparison:

The six-year rankings graphic is based on the 110 countries that were included in the Prosperity Index in 2009. In 2012 we added 32 new countries as a result of more global data being available. These new countries are not included in the graphic because their addition would artificially alter the six-year comparison. In practice, this would mean that countries lower down the Index would be pushed down even further for no other reason than new countries having been added above them. For this reason, we have used the original 110 countries to show the six-year comparison.

Graphic: Legatum Institute

The index assesses 142 countries and looks at 89 individual variables across eight sub-indices: economy, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, education, personal freedom, health, safety and security and social capital.



At the bottom of the rankings is the Central African Republic which also has ranked last for entrepreneurship and opportunity and second to last in the health category.

Sub-Saharan African countries take nine of the bottom 10 places on the health sub-index with Sierra Leone named as the worst performing country for this category. In its study, the think tank warns: “the health systems in the majority of countries in the region are underdeveloped and ill-prepared to face serious threats to public health, such as the recent outbreak of Ebola in West Africa.”

You can find the full rankings in the table below. To see the rankings by sub-index, scroll across the table to the right.