NZ & Aust.: Top 7 World Prosperity!! Why?

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. New Zealand moved to third place, up two spots from 2013. Australia was seventh. Congratulations to the "Winners"!!

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". New Zealand was ranked first in the world for "personal freedom" and second for both "governance" and "social capital". Australia was ranked first in the world for "education" and third for "personal freedom". From what we enjoyed earlier this year, we can understand these high rankings for both wonderful countries!!

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

Back from doing a 14-day Celebrity Solstice, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure on this ship and getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for much more information and lots of wonderful pictures on these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 84,468 views for this fun posting.