The 2007 Legatum Prosperity Index
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02 July 2007 - Press Release | Video Interview | Notes to Editors | 02 July 2007 - Business Standard Article

Frequently Asked Questions

General

  1. What is the Legatum Prosperity Index?
  2. What are some of the highlights of the Index?
  3. What else is interesting?
  4. Why did you launch the Index?
  5. What are the key drivers and restrainers of prosperity?

Indications

  1. Some countries have a wide variation between their material wealth and life satisfaction rankings, while others, like the UK, are almost the same. What does that tell us?
  2. What can low income countries learn from the Index?
  3. What can higher income countries learn from the Index?
  4. What does the ‘freedom of choice’ factor indicate for policymakers?

Methodology

  1. How did you collect the data?
  2. Your report only covers 50 countries in full. Are there any plans to expand the study?
  3. How are the rankings calculated?

Usage

  1. Who is the study for?
  2. What is the Prosperiscope™?

Country-Specific

  1. Why does Singapore rank 1st on material wealth and as low as 24th on life satisfaction measures?
  2. Is there any hope for Zimbabwe?
  3. Japan appears to score highly on a number of individual well-being dimensions. Why does it then rank relatively low on the life satisfaction rankings?

Progress

  1. Some of the negative scores seem to reflect ingrained cultural attitudes – for example, the lack of leisure time in South Korea, where working long hours is a virtue. How can countries address these cultural norms and move up the rankings?
  2. Which countries do you think will make the most progress in the next 5 years?

Legatum-related

  1. What is the Legatum Institute for Global Development and what does it do?
  2. Who is Legatum?
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