London-based independent think-tank The Legatum Institute has launched its yearly Prosperity Index and it contains striking results for Turkey. For the past five years, Legatum has been putting together an annual assessment of global wealth and satisfaction, covering 142 countries, including Turkey.<\/p>\n
As well as their economic performance, the countries are ranked in education; entrepreneurship & opportunity; governance; health; personal freedom; safety & security; and social capital. Prosperity Index covers 96% of world population living in those 142 countries.<\/p>\n
The happiest top five are the countries that enjoy good governance; freedom of speech and choice, high quality education and health care, plenty of opportunities to earn a good living, Norway again tops the list, followed by Switzerland, Canada, Sweden and New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Turkey has moved up two places in overall Prosperity since 2009 and this year it stands at 87th<\/sup> place. Over the last five years, Turkey has risen eleven places to 70th in the Economy sub-index, mainly thanks to its growing economy and job availability.<\/p>\n Alas, it hasn\u2019t shown the same performance in the personal freedom sub-index. On the contrary, its ranking has fallen five places to 130th<\/sup> since 2009. The Legatum explains this as a result of decreases in satisfaction with freedom of choice, and drops in tolerance towards ethnic minorities.\u00a0 http:\/\/www.prosperity.com\/#!\/country\/TUR<\/a><\/p>\n In fact, the worst performing eight countries at the bottom 15 on the personal freedom index are from the Middle East and North Africa region. Saudi Arabia follows Turkey as the 131st<\/sup>. Algeria is 132nd<\/sup>, war-torn Syria 133rd<\/sup>.<\/p>\n In the overall prosperity ranking, Iceland stands in the 13th place, followed by Germany, Austria and the United Kingdom. The UK\u00a0 fell three positions\u00a0 to 16th this year.\u00a0 The USA\u00a0 for the first time dropped out of the top 20. At 11th place in overall Prosperity Index, the USA has been taken over by New Zealand and South Korea.<\/p>\n Legatum\u2019s Prosperity Index assesment of the oil-rich Muslim countries reconfirms the Turkish proverb: \u201cmoney alone doesn\u2019t bring hapiness\u201d.\u00a0 On the contrary, those that uphold personal choice, freedom of speech, equality of opportunity and education rank considerably higher in hapiness scale even if they are not so rich.<\/p>\n