A job seeker looks at job notices displayed at an employment centre inside La Sapienza University in Rome, in this file photo.Alessia Pierdomenico/Bloomberg
In Britain, politicians are crowing about the latest Prosperity Index report. In Italy, they are not talking about the report and it's not hard to see why. Italy has fallen so hard and so fast in the rankings that its prosperity – standard of living, in effect – now ranks below Costa Rica's, Slovakia's and Kuwait's.
The report notes that "If the criteria for G20 admission were based on the prosperity level, Italy would be out of this group." Indeed, the report makes you wonder why Italy is still a member of the Group of Seven.
The Prosperity Index is big piece of research published by the Legatum Institute, the British think-tank that compiles an annual assessment of global wealth and well-being. The study compares 142 countries in eight categories: Economy, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, education, wealth, safety and security, personal freedom and social capital.
The idea reflects the belief that gross domestic product alone is an overly narrow and inadequate reflection of prosperity. If a country has a high GDP per capita but terrible health care and education, maybe it's no paradise.
The index's top five, in order, are Norway, Switzerland, New Zealand, Denmark and Canada. No big surprise there, though it's interesting to note that three of the five are European countries that are not members of the euro zone, suggesting that keeping control of your own currency is not a bad idea. Norway and Denmark are also relatively high-tax countries. Sometimes you get the health care and education that you pay for.
Britain was one of the big winners. It moved to 13th spot this year, from 16th in 2013, making it one of the most prosperous EU countries and the most prosperous big EU country; Germany was ranked 14th and France 21st.
George Osborne, the election-bound chancellor of the exchequer, was quick to use the Prosperity Index to promote his economic agenda, which could be characterized as austerity-lite. "Thanks to the difficult decisions we have taken to deliver economic security and control of pubic finances, we have moved three places up in the global rankings. Its fantastic to see Britain leading the way for entrepreneurship, personal freedom, health and eduction."
The standout loser in Europe and among the Group of 20 countries was Italy, now trapped in its third recession since 2008. It ranked a lowly 37th, down five notches from last year and 11 notches from 2009. In every category, save health, Italy was a loser. Italians have no faith in their government or their courts and xenophobia is on the rise. Perhaps the saddest revelation was that only 3.1 per cent of Italians think Italy is a good place to find a job. "All these elements may explain why Italians are the most worried people in Europe," the report said.
No Italian, especially no young Italian – youth unemployment is more than 40 per cent – would find Italy's ranking in the Prosperity Index shocking or unfair. The loss of wealth, jobs and optimism in Italy is unrelenting.
The 20 most prosperous nations:
- 1. Norway
- 2. Switzerland
- 3. New Zealand
- 4. Denmark
- 5. Canada
- 6. Sweden
- 7. Australia
- 8. Finland
- 9. Netherlands
- 10. United States
- 11. Iceland
- 12. Ireland
- 13. United Kingdom
- 14. Germany
- 15. Austria
- 16. Luxembourg
- 17. Belgium
- 18. Singapore
- 19. Japan
- 20. Hong Kong
The bottom 10:
- Guinea
- Sierra Leone
- Haiti
- Togo
- Afghanistan
- Yemen
- Burundi
- Congo (DR)
- Chad
- Central African Republic
Eric Reguly