Legatum Index: U.S. Ranks Ninth Overall In Prosperity

When it comes to prosperity, the United States has nothing on Scandinavia -- or, at least, that's the conclusion that a newly released ranking arrives at.

According to a report released by Legatum, a global investment firm, the U.S. is the ninth most prosperous nation in the world, trailing five Scandinavian countries which dominate the top rankings.

How did Legatum come to these conclusions? Well, their rankings define prosperity "as both wealth and well-being, and 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." Legatum ranked countries in the categories of economic fundamentals, entrepreneurship and innovation, democratic institutions, education, health, safety and security, governance, personal freedom, and social capital. The scores were then averaged to find a nation's overall ranking.

The United States' ranking was weighed down by a relatively poor performance in Health, (with a ranking of 27th) and Governance (16th). According to Legatum's data, two-thirds of the U.S. population thinks that the government is corrupt, and only 58% have faith in the judicial system; three-fifths think that local businesses are corrupt.

The category that the U.S. did place first in was Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Some 680,000 businesses were in started in America in 2007 due, in large part, to low barriers of entry for entrepreneurs looking to start companies. Apart from having a high number of personal computers per capita, the United States also has the world's highest average internet bandwidth levels and high levels of secure internet servers per person.

Here are the top ten:

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

To see the complete list, including the lowest-ranking countries, click here.

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Comments

[vippy]

This is incorrect. Germany and Austria are not included and their lifestyle is ahead of ours. Education is still free there and they make real wages and receive benefits we can only dream about!
If Americans would be aware that we have the highest deficit of all countries on this globe, even
surpassing Zimbabwe, maybe they would wake up. Germany, for instance, is #3 on the list with the most money!

[loki]

woohooo!!
Were number 1
Were number 1
Were number 1 !!!

huh? what? Were not number 1?
Oh,they must be wrong. We are the best. The most advanced, the smartest. The richest, the best health care, the most everything? What? were not the smartest? Or schools suck and only 7 out of 100 kids in school will end up graduating from a University ? And half of those wont get above a c average? well, you know, a C average is more than enough to become president of the greatest country on earth!! George Bush had a C Average, and that was with Daddy paying for it! So good enough for president, good enough for our kids , right?? Or health care isnt the best?
What do you mean were not the most technically l advanced? We have tons of cool electronics, and the internet! What? our internet speeds cost much more and are slower than most of the rest of the world? Most of our technical advances are really developed and made in other countries? Oh.
So , what are we number one at??

[nogimmicks]

The greedy parasitic special interests (a subset of bankers, mainly the Fed + GS, and some other groups) took control over the money, and consequently over the Media and the Government. They are gradually changing the laws, solidifying their dominance, and slowly siphoning all the wealth from the middle class to themselves via every mechanism possible. When we vote, we only choose between the shades of their nominees. It is impossible to revert it. It only is going to get worse. 1984 is here after a 25 years delay.

[RTIII]

"...trailing five Scandinavian countries which dominate the top rankings."

BUT, there are only FOUR Scandinavian countries listed - SOMEBODY doesn't know what countries are in Scandinavia!

BTW, I've been to all of em except Iceland.
.

[chedet]

Can I shove this list to the republicans' faces?

[Hdaryl01]

Yep, and it's only going to get worse in my humble opinion. Thankfully my wife and two children are Canadian and I had the option and ability to leverage their status and obtain a family basis Canadian Permanent Resident VIsa (Green Card) so we could reverse migrate north as a family to the more civilized country of Canada. My wife had lived in the US for over 40 years from the time she was 3 on her own US Green Card.

Imagine healthcare being a non-issue.....
Imagine not needing to be employed to have healthcare.....
Imagine fantastic world class schools....
Imagine world class college education at 1/4-1/3 the U.S. cost.....
Imagine quality of life.....
Imagine the world's #1 ranked banking system.....
Imagine a growing economy, and labor shortages......

Good luck!

[sonoffestus]

Why imagine? Just do it. We did and couldn't be happier, for all those reasons you noted.
The American Dream is alive and well however, it immigrated to Canada. Start your paperwork, the line is getting longer. Having a Canadian spouse helps,. Be good to her as the immigration officer asked my Canadian wife if she was planning on divorcing me anytime soon? I am not kidding, be good and good luck.

[Hdaryl01]

I couldn't agree more! And, I'm not imagining-I, like you, have done it. And, yes, it was a royal hassle even with a Canadian wife of over a decade, married in Canada, and two Canadian kids to get a Canadian Green Card. I'm just happy I was able to get one, as many others are in increasing long lines trying to get one one their own, and it is an increasingly non-viable option.

The "imagine" examples were designed to get Americans to consider alternatives to their current situation.

For more objectivity: Did you see the latest UN quality of life report summarized here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index Canada 4, U.S. 13

And, check out the 2009 Mercer quality of life rankings for cities http://www.mercer.com/referencecontent.htm?idContent=1173105 5 of the top 25 are in Canada: Vancouver 4, Toronto 15, Ottawa 16, Montreal 22, and Calgary 25. Highest ranked U.S. city is Honolulu at 29...

[Mondayboy]

I am moving to Finland - next summer. And I will stay there only for the summers.

[sonoffestus]

Finland............A beautiful country, full of wonderful people. How I loved my visits there. Enjoy yourself!
Quality of life...................Outstanding. I need a sauna, right now.

[Democratuser]

hat tip to http://financeopinionss.blogspot.com

lets get unemployment benefit extension passed

[timewaster2dcore]

And what do most of the top 8 countries have in common? They are socialistic.

[chedet]

I think most of the countries in this world are socialistic. It's true that americans are really against the world. Too bad!

[abbyrose86]

It seems apparent to me, they realize the way to happiness...unfortunately,.we don't seem to get it.

I want to move or at least...can we progress, too? (sigh)

[Hdaryl01]

I would simply refer to them as CIVILIZED...

[mogens]

Some things in this statistics makes me wonder. The GNP pc in Denmark is 36.900 USD.
In DKR it i 322000. That gives ab exchange rate of 8.7 DKR på USD, but in the bank I only have to pay 5 DKR pr USD. That is nonsense. The prices in Denmark is not 74% higher than in the USA, and how can Denmark have a relatively large trade surplus with such an overvalued currency?
If you removes VAT (and the way you collect taxes has nothing to do with your GNP) the "Supermarket-value" of the USD compared with DKR is a little less than 5 DKR to1 USD.
For fun I made a comparation in the autumn of 2007 using supermarket catalogues from the two countries and removing VAT and sales taxes,

[sheine]

Come on now, let's get real. Anyone who has read my posts knows that I can be as critical of this country as anybody. However, if you offered me a mansion as an inducement to go to any of the higher rated countries, I would stay here. And, I suspect that so would all the others envying the Scandanavians etc. in their posts. Despite our bad times and lousy politicians, equality and justice are more real in this country than anywhere else. Look at the composition of our Congress, there is no other nation that has such diversity. If our past history is a guide, sooner or later we will get the reforms that we desperately need.

[stevebest]

not me i would love a chance to get into a scandanavian country they arent taking anyone i have been trying to get into canada for a while there are over 200k americans ahead of me on the list, i am just hoping they arent all serious about it. Emigration is booming business now so it isnt just me. Diversity in congress is what you can come up with really is that the diversity of race or the companies and banks that paid for them.

[sonoffestus]

Still believing the myth I see.

[chrisc918]

Look at their composition in their parliament. Sweden's parliament is made up 47% women, Finland's 41.5%, Denmark's 38%. In Norway, all elections and nominations both sexes must be represented by at least 40%. While the United States is at 16.8%, but of course we must be better then others. We are tied with Turkmenistan, and Turkmenistan is known for being bother fair and equal. At least Iraq is beating us at 25.5%, and we know how fair they treat their women. I know the Scandinavian countries are homogeneous, but the one thing we both have is men and women and they definitely beat us there.

[bluevase]

I would go to Canada tomorrow if I could. I'm working on moving there someday.

[chedet]

I think even Israel has more muslims in their government than our country. Does that tell something?

[LHoney]

This is very enlightening. If you click on the full list at the bottom of the article, it is interactive. This says so much about what's wrong with our country... I think the only reason we rank as high as 9th is because of Enron bookkeeping. Lord knows what the real numbers would look like...

[Trophoto]

True it is enlightening. US ranks 27th in Health, 7th in Education and 8th in personal freedoms. Land of the 8th freest home of the sick. And so many in congress want to maintain the status quo. Seems the 16th ranking in governance is overrated.

[Trophoto]

Wow I guess universal health care really hampered all these countries who are more prosperous than the US.

[swift goat pet for truth]

Americans would be better off to associate socialism with these countries instead of the old Soviet Union.

[PhilipTaylor]

BIRTH OF A NEW SYSTEM: STAGES OF REMOVING CORRUPT 0LD SYSTEM

Natural progression of stages from 0LD to NEW:

*Stage 1: Disillusionment: Realize PROBLEMS are so Severe Reform seems Impossible! Some Chance of Reform exists!

*Stage 2: Erosion: Characterized by a chipping away at 0LD SYSTEM with Facts, Complaints, Evaluation of Inequities +Imbalances. ANG_ER is expressed. Some Chance of Reform still exists but growing uncertainty!

Stage 3: Detachment: All interest and commitment to saving 0LD System is LOST as discussions shut down! Disenchantment with 0LD System increases while intensified conflict decreases as FOCUS moves to defining the NEW SYSTEM! “Dream of a NEW Future” without 0LD Problems!

Stage 4: Dismantling: Building Knowledge and Courage to replace 0LD System with New System brings Enormous Relief of past Disillusionment. Some anxiety, initial confusion, and fe_ar exists but resolves as New System becomes clearer.

Stage 5: Mourning: Removes ghosts of 0ld System as process moves to NEW Concrete Goals and Objectives. Anger at 0ld System is released and removed.

Stage 6: BIRTH of Fully Defined New System: Concentration on Choices, Clear Vision of things to come, Excitement, Evaluation of Alternatives and Risks, and Near Final Definition of Structure of the New System! Detailed Plan of action is developed.

Stage 7: Implementation and Hard Work: Renewed vitality, Pursuit of Goals, Finalize Policy Issues+Management Issues+Laws and Legal Definitions. Goals are Reached and Aspirations Achieved+Realization of New Balance of Power. New Confidence rises in final stage as Hard Work Follows.

[SimJack]

Sort of a societal version of Helen Kubler-Ross' theories on death and dying.

[lightningbolt]

The new system should be modeled on the U.S. Constitution. The current system is totally unconstitutional.

[sonoffestus]

LOL....good one!