New Zealand more prosperous than most of the OECD

5 November 2012

New Zealand is the World’s 5^th most prosperous country according to the Legatum Prosperity Index 2012 published last week (the same ranking as last year). This is the average on the eight elements which comprise the Index, being; Economy; Entrepreneurship and Opportunities; Governance; Education; Health; Safety and Security; Personal Freedom, Social Capital.

New Zealand was among the leaders for Education (ranked 1^st ), Governance (ranked 2^nd ), Personal Freedom (ranked 2^nd ) and Social Capital (ranked 4^th).

The overall Prosperity rating for New Zealand was affected by deteriorating evaluations for the Economy (27^th) and Safety and Security (20^th). Ironically, although the Government is seeking better outcomes from schools, and has strained relationships with teachers’ groups, Legatum rates New Zealand as the top jurisdiction for Education (up from 2nd last year.)

Switzerland, the only country that scores best on two elements, is the 9^th for overall Prosperity because its Education is rated 32^nd.

The Central African Republic has the worst overall Prosperity rating, although it has the lowest measure in only one element – Education.

There were 142 countries assessed for the Index this year (compared to 110 in 2011). None of the Pacific Forum countries is included.

There has been little movement among the top ten jurisdictions. Although there is little consistency in the ratings of the eight elements, the Social Capital measurement relates more closely to the overall prosperity rating than any other.

I am unsure why the Prosperity Index is not included among the 30 open source data sets that make up the Global Observatory Catalogue of Indices.

Legatum Prosperity Index 2012

		E’my	Op’ties	Gov’nce	Ed’n	H’lth	S’ty	Frdm	Soc Cap
1	Norway	2	4	13	6	4	2	6	1
2	Denmark	19	1	3	16	16	8	7	2
3	Sweden	5	2	4	12	14	6	5	9
4	Australia	10	8	8	2	17	19	3	3
5	NZ	27	13	2	1	20	13	2	4
6	Canada	8	16	6	3	15	9	1	8
7	Finland	16	3	5	8	12	3	19	5
8	Netherlands	14	10	11	11	7	18	9	6
9	Switzerland	1	7	1	32	3	10	22	11
10	Ireland	25	14	14	14	11	4	4	7