The 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index

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Raj, Toronto said on the 13^th March 2010:

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The UN's Human Development Index(HDI) is a better one. There are no subjective elements in it. The HDI provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP, income).
Lets compare China and India. In the prosperity index India is at 45 while China is at 75 out of 104 countries. In HDI, China is at 92 and India is at 134 out of 182 countries. Per HDI, China is way ahead of India and improving every year. India on the other hand has deteriorated; was 127 in 2006 and is down to 134 in 2009. The type of government China has has actually helped it since decisions are quicker; the Chinese are nimble footed. However negative the human rights factor is, the one child policy has helped; from the Chinese context it actually made sense to have such a policy in place. The Chinese have a long term vision of becoming a superpower and in that vision the current form of government fits. As China gets richer(or shall we say less poorer), the possibility of democratization will be higher even though it will be slow.
India on the other hand has a democracy which has been problematic. By the way, India does not have a true democracy like the US. About 30% of MPs in the national parliament have a criminal background; you can either buy your way or use arm twisting tactics to get elected. The country does not have a one child policy which is actually problematic resulting in continuing high population growth; though the country's population is young -- median age is 25 compared to China's 33, the population has poor health-- merely being young is not enough.
In India, 47% of children under 5 are malnourished, 79% live on $2 or less a day, 42% live on less than $1.25 a day(absolute poverty),
literacy rate is at 64% -- for women its even worse at 52%. Even in 2050, there will still be absolute poverty in India mainly due to population growth. Life expectancy is at 63 while in China it is 73.
Malnourishment does not exist in China anymore. Literacy rate is at 90%. In about 10 to 15 years, absolute poverty will no longer exist in China. Not being in absolute poverty is better than living in a democracy.
The Chinese dont care about religion; they are more interested in material prosperity. Most dont rue the fact that they are not a democracy. For now, most agree with the government's push towards economic prosperity. The behavior of the nation as a whole clearly indicates that China has a definite long term plan and is implementing it with vigour. This country has a huge ambition to be a super power.
In my opinion, China is doing much better than India, irrespective of what the prosperity index concludes.

Kev said on the 12^th March 2010:

Respond

Hello, I am a native citizen of Canada. I have just read about your work on the web. May I say that I am going to be interested in doing some research into how organizations like yours and a few others come up with your results, your opinions if I may in goodwill? I say this as I am concerned may I say without prejudice about corruptionn and justice in my own land of Canada and how it is managed in some other countries as well. I think that some do not know for example that in Canada we do not elect our own Senators. They are appointed by the Prime Minister. Judges, senior judges in the federal courts are appointed by who? Once again by the Prime Minister? The head of the National police, Canada's RCMP is appointed by the Prime Minister? The current head of the RCMP was not a former RCMP officer, he was in part the former Chief of Staff to the Deputy Prime Minister of a former Government whose Prime Minister was investigated for possible questionable activity and has been the focus of a mulkti-million dolalr inquiry where the judge carrying out the inquiry was originally appojnted by the former Prime Minister being investigated I understand? Is that what we call judicial independence and democracy? Now just imagine for a momnent what would your group do if they exposed how undemocratic to some this may seem may I ask without malice? And by the way, in Canada we do not even have a National Minister of Education to help ensure national education standards?

MC Pineda, Guyana said on the 11^th March 2010:

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Why are countries like Guyana and the others in the Caribbean Region not included on the Legatum Prosperity Index?

Administrator responded on the 11^th March 2010:

The most common reason why countries are exluded from the Prosperity Index is due to the lack of data available for those countries. However, to answer this and many other questions, please see the FAQ's section located here: http://www.prosperity.com/faqs.aspx
Thank you

Martin, Venezuela said on the 10^th March 2010:

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I don't understand why there are so many detractors of this study. I think the results of the study do really reflect the reality. If you do not think so, just take sometime to travel around. You will see why Scandinavian countries rank the first position and why other rich countries are not even in the first 20...

Thanks for the study, I think you did a great job

Anonymous said on the 28^th February 2010:

Respond

Why on earth is this list still on the net. They are using statistics and figures which date from 7 years ago. Next to that, we see some sort of weird bias and interpretation of these figures.

Administrator responded on the 1^st March 2010:

Thank you for your interest in the Prosperity Index. The Index is based on data from 2001 to 2007. Data for more recent years were not available during the time of research. Additionally, we would like to include data from previous years in order to capture the long-term trends in the variables, but due to limited data availability, we were not able to obtain this information. However, we are continuously searching for additional datasets, so any suggestions of other sources are always welcome. For more information on the data that we use, please refer to the methodology section and technical appendix here:
http://prosperity.com/report.aspx

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Economic Fundamentals	25th
Entrepreneurship & Innovation	26th
Democratic Institutions	23rd
Education	17th
Health	11th
Safety and Security	31st
Governance	35th
Personal Freedom	40th
Social Capital	37th



1	Finland	10	9	9	3	7	2	2	7	6
2	Switzerland	2	13	1	22	3	6	3	11	2
3	Sweden	16	3	7	4	15	7	5	5	3
4	Denmark	15	6	12	2	12	4	1	2	13
5	Norway	18	17	8	1	10	1	7	1	10
6	Australia	7	15	5	6	21	14	10	4	4
7	Canada	6	4	6	16	22	9	9	3	9
8	Netherlands	3	5	19	14	8	15	8	10	8
9	United States	14	1	2	7	27	19	16	8	7
10	New Zealand	27	18	4	10	19	13	11	6	1
11	Ireland	5	12	13	18	2	5	12	25	12
12	United Kingdom	13	2	11	21	23	22	13	19	11
13	Belgium	4	20	3	11	5	16	15	9	26
14	Germany	23	8	21	19	6	21	17	17	19
15	Austria	12	19	10	13	1	10	14	36	23
16	Japan	8	7	20	20	9	12	20	22	40
17	France	17	14	14	15	14	23	18	15	48
18	Hong Kong	1	10	60	39	18	11	6	67	33
19	Spain	11	25	15	12	17	28	21	13	71
20	Slovenia	31	36	16	8	24	8	24	33	44
21	Italy	25	26	23	17	11	31	35	40	37
22	Portugal	28	31	22	29	20	17	25	26	64
23	Singapore	9	11	86	26	4	3	4	64	76
24	Taiwan	19	21	29	9	26	20	43	30	73
25	Czech Republic	20	27	25	31	16	29	28	23	74
26	South Korea	21	16	32	30	31	36	27	70	31
27=	Israel	22	23	17	25	25	74	26	41	78
27=	Hungary	26	22	26	23	30	30	29	48	92
29	Poland	33	35	24	27	32	25	32	45	68
30	Greece	42	43	40	5	13	32	30	65	51
31	Estonia	30	24	34	35	35	33	19	43	94
32	Costa Rica	55	33	28	61	37	44	38	12	47
33	Uruguay	67	53	35	43	28	26	31	14	60
34	Slovakia	35	30	18	36	36	34	33	69	69
35	Croatia	41	34	41	40	34	39	42	28	46
36	Chile	36	47	27	49	48	27	22	31	85
37	Latvia	32	32	31	24	38	38	34	76	99
38	Argentina	53	48	45	38	39	45	69	27	56
39	Malaysia	24	28	69	52	40	48	37	83	52
40	Trinidad and Tobago	48	58	43	73	49	54	52	18	34
41	Brazil	54	37	38	58	64	79	53	16	62
42	Panama	46	73	39	48	57	41	50	54	50
43	Mexico	34	29	61	60	51	72	51	73	45
44	Thailand	37	39	81	54	66	58	40	74	22
45	India	43	55	36	86	88	87	41	47	5
46	Bulgaria	40	45	30	37	43	46	45	81	101
47	United Arab Emirates	38	44	98	47	29	18	39	72	77
48	Romania	52	40	33	41	47	40	64	78	102
49	Jamaica	71	51	56	71	55	57	73	24	61
50	Mongolia	57	70	44	53	76	35	86	59	42
51	South Africa	58	46	47	69	82	96	47	50	30
52=	Belize	74	49	50	79	61	61	55	58	58
52=	Kuwait	62	71	83	33	33	24	44	87	79
54	Dominican Republic	85	90	59	76	77	77	62	21	20
55	Philippines	63	41	67	70	75	78	66	20	81
56	Botswana	56	92	37	80	95	68	23	32	29
57	Paraguay	87	67	65	74	65	50	76	29	53
58	Sri Lanka	81	82	71	77	72	97	59	39	17
59	Macedonia	86	68	42	57	41	55	63	71	88
60	El Salvador	73	74	68	83	69	71	58	35	59
61=	Indonesia	68	63	58	75	78	63	61	100	14
61=	Ukraine	60	59	55	32	67	69	92	68	89
63	Namibia	69	64	53	85	83	86	46	46	27
64	Peru	49	61	51	51	81	73	68	62	104
65	Colombia	61	57	70	62	63	104	49	44	75
66	Honduras	76	88	63	78	80	62	71	63	55
67	Guatemala	84	75	74	87	71	82	70	42	49
68	Tunisia	66	54	94	50	54	37	36	86	96
69=	Russia	39	42	85	28	46	99	85	88	84
69=	Turkey	50	56	49	68	56	83	48	94	103
71	Ecuador	78	72	77	65	58	89	87	61	65
72	Nicaragua	96	91	46	82	84	66	72	38	57
73	Bolivia	90	78	54	63	85	76	84	53	66
74	Venezuela	83	85	72	66	60	93	101	57	54
75	China	29	38	100	64	53	65	93	91	70
76	Kazakhstan	59	62	96	42	45	49	97	75	87
77	Vietnam	47	60	97	81	68	42	75	80	63
78	Moldova	82	52	57	45	79	75	89	85	93
79	Ghana	94	103	48	93	93	53	54	34	24
80	Jordan	64	77	84	46	59	47	57	103	83
81	Saudi Arabia	44	81	101	56	42	56	67	98	43
82	Mali	92	99	52	102	101	43	80	37	15
83	Morocco	51	50	82	84	73	59	65	90	91
84	Senegal	100	89	62	99	96	51	56	52	28
85	Belarus	45	76	102	34	44	52	98	89	98
86	Lebanon	75	66	80	44	52	90	79	99	90
87	Bangladesh	80	86	75	89	90	80	60	56	72
88	Egypt	72	65	90	55	50	64	91	95	100
89	Zambia	102	101	64	98	97	85	77	60	21
90	Nepal	91	93	89	91	86	91	94	77	18
91	Mozambique	95	98	73	104	100	60	78	49	38
92	Uzbekistan	89	87	104	72	62	67	96	82	80
93	Cambodia	65	102	88	96	98	70	82	51	67
94	Iran	79	69	93	59	70	88	102	101	82
95	Kenya	101	83	66	95	91	100	88	84	25
96	Algeria	77	95	87	67	74	95	83	97	95
97	Tanzania	97	100	76	100	102	84	74	66	41
98	Nigeria	99	94	78	94	92	98	99	92	16
99	Pakistan	70	79	79	101	87	101	81	104	36
100	Cameroon	88	96	95	92	99	94	103	79	35
101=	Central African Rep.	98	104	92	103	104	92	100	55	39
101=	Yemen	103	97	91	88	94	81	90	93	86
103	Sudan	93	80	103	97	89	103	95	96	32
104	Zimbabwe	104	84	99	90	103	102	104	102	97

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Sub-index Weightings

Key findings

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Italy

The 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index Table Rankings

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