Norway: Most Prosperous! 3 Other Baltics Tops

From The Local, an English-languague newspaper in Norway, and other publications yesterday, they have this headline: "Norway is world's most prosperous country". Good news for Norway, but "most prosperous" also means this great country can be expensive to visit with higher labor costs, etc. Congratulations to Norway!!

Among the story highlights were: "Legatum Institute's 2014 Prosperity Index ranked Norway as the most prosperous country in the world, with Switzerland at number two on the list. The rankings are based on eight variables of a country's prosperity performance: Economy, Entrepreneurship, Governance, Education, Personal freedom, Health, Security and Social capital".

The rest of the top ten "Prosperity Index" included three others from the Baltics areas, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Here is the full listing of the top twenty: 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 and 20 Hong Kong. Russia slipped to Europe's worst performing country in 68th place. In some UK publications, there was prideful notation of the British moving ahead of Germany based on this index/report.

Full story at:

http://www.thelocal.no/20141103/norway-is-worlds-most-prosperous-country

For more complete data with this complete report and its details, you can check at:

http://www.prosperity.com/#!/ranking

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 162,188 views. Nice to be hitting this high of a level for viewership. Appreciate the interest and follow-up questions/comments!!

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

You have to wonder how much Norway's economy will be hurt by the drop in oil prices. They are an exporter of oil and pretty dependent on that. Unlike Sweden and Finland, Norway really hasn't developed or encouraged other industries. Maybe their economy isn't a house of cards, but some of these petro economies are susceptible to demand and pricing. Long term, in that area, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden are probably better bets.