Legatum Institute sees Kazakhstan as most prosperous post-soviet country

Kazakhstan has become No. 47 in the 2013 prosperity index of Legatum international research institute, CA-NEWS reports. Kazakhstan increased its standing by seven lines in the overall prosperity compared to the previous index. Kazakhstan advanced 22 lines in the Entrepreneurship & Opportunity sub-index to the 55th place thanks to improvement in ICT infrastructure, ICT exports, and research & development spending and a drop in start-up costs. According to the ranking Kazakhstan got the 22nd place - its highest position - for the quality of its Social Capital, and the 97th place - its lowest - for the Governance. Kazakhstan is in 41st place in the Education sub-index, and had relatively good positions in the Personal Freedom and Health sectors, the 60th and 65th places respectively. What concerns the post-soviet countries, they are all far behind Kazakhstan (№47). Belarus is in the 58th place, Russia has the 61st position, Uzbekistan got the 63rd place, Kyrgyzstan is 80th and Tajikistan has the 94th place. Norway is the leader of the ranking for the fourth time. Switzerland is in the 2nd place, and then goes Canada, Sweden and New Zealand. The United States is in the 11th place. The African countries Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Chad round out the ranking list. The Legatum Prosperity Index is an annual ranking, developed by the Legatum Institute, that rates 142 countries. The ranking is based on a variety of factors including wealth, economic growth, personal well-being, and quality of life. Norway has topped the list in the last three reports; those of 2010, 2011 and 2012. The Legatum Prosperity Index is based on 89 different variables. Source data includes Gallup World Poll, WTO, World Development Indicators, GDP, World Intellectual Property Organization, UN Human Development Report, World Bank, OECD, World Values Survey. The 89 variables are grouped into 8 sub-indexes which are averaged using equal weights. The 8 sub-indexes are: Economy, Entrepreneurship & Opportunity, Governance, Education, Health, Safety & Security, Personal Freedom, Social Capital.