Who's Going Places

The Material Wealth section of the Index measures achievement: which countries have done the most to increase the wealth of their citizens? But there is also the question of progress: which countries are doing the most to achieve the highest growth rates today, to top the Wealth rankings tomorrow? By this standard the leading country is Ireland, with levels of international trade and investment matching that of countries that have historically produced the fastest economic growth of any country on earth. The countries making the least progress include Zimbabwe and Venezuela, registering actual net destruction of their stocks of either invested capital or human capital (education).

A few of the exceptional performers deserve a mention. Several countries in the top ten are Eastern European, enjoying rapid growth as liberation from communism has unlocked these countries’ economic potential. Also notable is another formerly communist, and now increasingly market-oriented, economy: China, which ranks 5th. Considering the sheer number of Chinese people, and the fact that our index considers additions to material wealth per person -- so any increases in Chinese wealth must be divided by the country’s population of more than one billion people -- China’s recent economic success, following its growing embrace of a market economy, likely represents the most successful poverty alleviation programme in human history. (China’s challenge now is to improve its performance in the Life Satisfaction rankings, where severe restrictions on political and civil liberties contribute to low average levels of life satisfaction.)