UAE is 30th on Prosperity Index
The UAE is the highest ranking country in the Middle East in the annual Legatum Prosperity Index with 30th place. The 2015 report ranks 142 countries across eight categories: the economy; entrepreneurship and opportunity; governance; education; health; safety and security; personal freedom; and social capital.
Other countries in the region to make the top 50 include Kuwait (36th) and Saudi Arabia (42nd). Norway comes out on top due to the freedom it offers its citizens, the quality of its healthcare system and social bonds between its people.
Nathan Gamester, Director of the Prosperity Index at the Legatum Institute, said: “The Prosperity Index tells us that human progress goes beyond economics. Norway and other countries at the top of the Index provide opportunity and freedom to their citizens, access to quality healthcare and education, and provide safe environments for people to flourish in. By contrast those countries or regions of the world where people feel unsafe, where they are forced to flee from their homes, and where the education and healthcare systems are failing do not provide prosperity to their citizens. Sadly this year the Prosperity Index reveals that the world is becoming an increasingly dangerous place. A dramatic decline in Safety & Security in Africa and the Middle East threatens to undermine prosperity across the world. Many European countries are still struggling to grapple with unemployment. The Prosperity Index shows that the world is becoming more prosperous, but ominous developments suggest that this cannot be taken for granted.”
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