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Thread: Happiness is living in .............

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    Default Happiness is living in .............

    The Legatum Prosperity Index uses a holistic definition of prosperity to include both material wealth and
    quality of life. The Index 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 world’s population by their performance in nine fundamental areas: :

    • Economic Fundamentals
    • Entrepreneurship and Innovation
    • Democratic Institutions
    • Education
    • Health
    • Safety and Security
    • Governance
    • Personal Freedom
    • Social Capital

    Each of these nine factors has been identified through extensive research as a key building block of
    prosperity. Each corresponds to a sub-index. A country’s position in the overall Prosperity Index is
    produced by averaging its 9 sub-index scores. The scores are then ranked to produce the overall ranking.


    Key Rankings:


    Top Twenty Countries:

    1. Finland
    2. Switzerland
    3. Sweden
    4. Denmark
    5. Norway
    6. Australia
    7. Canada
    8. Netherlands
    9. United States
    10. New Zealand
    11. Ireland
    12. United Kingdom
    13. Belgium
    14. Germany
    15. Austria
    16. Japan
    17. France
    18. Hong Kong
    19. Spain
    20. Slovenia


    Bottom Twenty Countries

    85. Belarus
    86. Lebanon
    87. Bangladesh
    88. Egypt
    89. Zambia
    90. Nepal
    91. Mozambique
    92. Uzbekistan
    93. Cambodia
    94. Iran
    95. Kenya
    96. Algeria
    97. Tanzania
    98. Nigeria
    99. Pakistan
    100. Cameroon
    101. Central African Republic
    101. Yemen
    103. Sudan
    104. Zimbabwe

    All successful countries demonstrate several common attributes, with the top ten scoring especially high
    on:
    ¾ Positive effect of good governance on quality of life and economic issues
    ¾ High overall levels of life satisfaction
    ¾ Level of personal freedom experienced by the citizenry
    ¾ Strong overall economic performance


    Key Findings

    What does the Prosperity Index tell us? Its value is found not only in its global rankings but also in what
    it can tell us about how prosperity is created. 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 nation’s economy is not
    fundamentally strong.

    3. Happiness is...opportunity, good health, relationships, and the freedom to choose who you want to
    be. The highest levels of overall life satisfaction are reported in countries which score best in the areas of
    health, safety, personal freedom, and social capital.

    4. Prosperity is concentrated in the north Atlantic – for now. Sixteen of the top 20 most prosperous
    countries sit in North America and Europe.

    5. History is not destiny. Highly-ranked nations include those with a long history of productive
    economies, effective, and limited government, and social capital – but also several others that not long
    ago were afflicted with poverty, oppression, and unhappiness.

    6. Good governance is central to life satisfaction and economic progress. Countries in which sound
    governance creates satisfied citizens are also the most likely to have the healthiest economic
    fundamentals and the most entrepreneurial societies.

    7. Prosperity means Security. Security and safety function as both a cause and effect of overall
    prosperity. A secure nation enables its citizens to flourish without fear of attack or harm, and prosperous
    citizens provide the financial resources and social capital to maintain safety and security.

    8. Freedom Cannot Be Divided. While some nations seek to allow one aspect of freedom while restricting
    other aspects, prosperous nations respect freedom in all of its dimensions: economic, political, religious,
    and personal.

    9. Strong Communities Are Better than Weak Governments. Some countries with ineffective
    governments still score well on social capital, indicating that healthy networks of families and friends
    play an essential role in helping a nation function.

    10. It’s true that money can’t buy happiness...unless you are poor. Only in the poorest countries do
    increases in income have a significant effect on people’s life satisfaction.

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    Default Re: Happiness is living in .............

    This year's index is out and it makes for interesting reading.

    Norway remains at the top of this year’s Index, narrowly ahead of Denmark and Australia, with the United States ranking 10th, ahead of large European nations such as Britain, Germany and France, which all still make the top 20. The Central African Republic ranks last ahead of Zimbabwe and Ethiopia.

    As far as southern Africa goes, countries have been ranked as follows

    67. Botswana
    80. Namibia
    86. South Africa
    109. Zimbabwe


    Top 10 Countries

    1. Norway
    2. Denmark
    3. Australia
    4. New Zealand
    5. Sweden
    6. Canada
    7. Finland
    8. Switzerland
    9. Netherlands
    10. United States


    Bottom 10 Countries

    101. Zambia
    102. Kenya
    103. Mozambique
    104. Nigeria
    105. Sudan
    106. Yemen
    107. Pakistan
    108. Ethiopia
    109. Zimbabwe
    110. Central African Republic

    Happiness is living in .............-summary2011.jpg
    Last edited by Comrade007; 5th November 2011 at 06:13 PM.
    "Nothing is complete and thus nothing is exempt from criticism." - James Luther Adams:

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