On November 3, the London-based research institute Legatum released its 10th annual global Prosperity Index, which evaluates countries based on a variety of factors, namely health, happiness and the economic prosperity of its inhabitants. To come up with its list, Legatum used 104 variables ranging from the more traditional indicators such as per-capita gross domestic product and the number of people with full-time occupation to the more decadent, such as the number of secure internet servers a country has as well as how relaxed its citizens feel on a day-to-day basis. These variables, in turn, were divided into nine sub-indices: economic quality, workplace, governance, education, health, safety, security, personal freedom, social capital and natural environment. Of the 149 countries able to supply the required data, Norway placed at the top of the prosperity index for seven consecutive years, until this year.
According to Legatum’s 2016 prosperity index, the best countries to live in are:
1. New Zealand
2. Norway
3. Finland
4. Switzerland
5. Canada
6. Australia
7. The Netherlands
8. Sweden
9. Denmark
10. United Kindom
11. Germany
12. Luxemburg
13. Ireland
14. Iceland
15. Austria
16. Belgium
17. United States of America
18. France
19. Singapore
20. Slovenia
21. Spain
22. Japan
23. Hong Kong
24. Malta
25. Portugal
And Greece? It didn’t make the cut.
Source: Business Insider UK
