The 2018 Legatum Prosperity Index is based on 104 different variables analysed across 149 nations around the world. Source data includes
Gallup World Poll,
World Development Indicators,
International Telecommunication Union,
Fragile States Index,
Worldwide Governance Indicators,
Freedom House,
World Health Organization,
World Values Survey,
Amnesty International, and Centre for Systemic Peace. The 104 variables are grouped into 9 sub-indexes, which are averaged using equal weights. The 9 sub-indexes are: • Economic Quality • Business Environment • Governance • Education • Health • Safety & Security • Personal Freedom • Social Capital • Natural Environment For example, Personal Freedom includes freedom of speech and religion, national tolerance for immigrants, and ethnic and racial minorities. The Social Capital sub-index includes the percentage of citizens who volunteer, give to charity, help strangers, and who feel they can rely on family and friends.
Oxford Analytica assisted in the early development of the Prosperity Index and has contributed to shaping the methodology. Today, the annual Index is produced and published by the Legatum Institute. The Legatum Institute operates a transparent approach to its work on the Prosperity Index. To that end, the entire methodology of the Prosperity Index along with the data used to create it is available for free online at the institute's website. == Rankings and scores by country ==