Legatum Properity Institute mission.
“The purpose of the Prosperity Index is to encourage policymakers, scholars, the media, and the interested public to take a holistic view of prosperity and understand how it is created. Holistic prosperity extends beyond just material wealth, and includes factors such as social capital, health, equality of opportunity, the environment, effective governance, human rights and liberties, and overall quality of life.”

Photo Attribution: afromusing

Interestingly enough Canada scores very well on these indices and perhaps somewhat surprisingly ranks very highly on Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Canada is 7th of 104 countries in prosperity and a remarkable 4th in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The Legatum index has 9 sub-indices; Economic Fundamentals, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Democratic Institutions, Education, Health, Safety and Security, Governance, Personal Freedom and Social Capital. I like to refer to the sub-indices as dimensions of prosperity and I think they are very well done and provide a great holistic indicator of prosperity.

The gist of the report is that Canada is a pretty awesome place and one of the ten best in the world from a holistic point of view. What I like about the prosperity index is that it considers both wealth and well being. They even mention that money can’t buy happiness, unless you are in the world’s poorest countries in which case money is the key differentiator that brings happiness. In terms of prosperity money is the lowest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of prosperity needs. More money will not necessarily make you happier; however, not enough will surely prevent happiness.

Next post – Drilling down into the Legatum Prosperity sub-index of entrepreneurship and innovation.

Filed under: Featured, Innovation by Ian
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