Are you better off then you were five years ago? Is the World? 

The Legatum Institute, an independent public policy organisation in London (INFO), produced a report (VIDEO) (PDF) on the 29th October this year. This to examine how prosperity is forming and changing across the world. The index benchmarks 142 countries around the world in eight sub-indices: economy; education; entrepreneurship and opportunity; governance; health; personal freedom; safety and security; and social capital. According to the report’s findings, global prosperity has risen over the past five years, largely due to improvements in entrepreneurship, health and education. The Prosperity Index, much like Maslow’s (hierarchy of needs) most famous contribution, attempts to provide a framework to understand and measure some of the most important factors that drive progress and development. As we all know National prosperity should be defined as much by human freedom, sound democracy, vibrant society, and entrepreneurial opportunity as it is by a growing economy and see if we can move forward in regards to the beyond GDP discussion. The four mayor changes this year: ’Global Prosperity is actually Rising’, ’Latin America is Rising’, ’Europe’s Loss is Asia’s Gain’ and ’Bangladesh overtakes India’.Have a look the Info graphic here and read the full 2013 Brochure here… (Photo credit Legatum Institute)