The Legatum Institute, an independent policy, advisory, and advocacy organization within the Legatum group of companies, released its Prosperity Index 2020 report, consisting of a gauge of prosperity across 167 countries around the globe based on material wealth and personal wellbeing. More specifically, the Legatum Prosperity Index is published on an annual basis and covers twelve parameters in its assessment for each country, namely “Safety & Security”, “Personal Freedom”, “Governance”, “Social Capital”, “Investment Environment”, “Enterprise Conditions”, “Market Access and Infrastructure”, “Economic Quality”, “Living Conditions”, “Health”, “Education”, and “Natural Environment”. The 2020 Legatum Prosperity Index revealed that global prosperity continues to increase, noting that 147 nations have enhanced their prosperity scores since 2010, with the biggest advancements experienced in the Asia-Pacific region over the past 10 years. The report also added that the growth in global prosperity witnessed in the last decade was before the COVID-19 pandemic which brought with it several considerable challenges. In this vein, the report noted that the index provided a framework for nations to assess their strengths and weaknesses as they battle the pandemic in order to aid them with taking strategic choices to build inclusive societies, open economies, and improve prosperity levels for all citizens.

According to the report, Denmark came in 1^st in the world in the 2020 Prosperity Index, followed by Norway (global rank: 2^nd), Switzerland (global rank: 3^rd), Sweden (global rank: 4^th) and Finland (global rank: 5^th), only to name a few. On the regional level, the report highlighted that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is one of only two regions to witness a lower than average improvement in overall prosperity in the past year, with 9 out of 18 countries registering a rise in their prosperity scores since 2019. More specifically, the United Arab Emirates came in first and ranked 42^nd in the world, followed by Qatar (regional rank: 2^nd, world rank: 45^th), Bahrain (regional rank: 3^rd, world rank: 56^th), Kuwait (regional rank: 4^th, world rank: 58^th) and Oman (regional rank: 5^th, world rank: 66^th) among others. On the local front, Lebanon lost one position in its overall Prosperity Index ranking when compared to the previous year and was assigned a global rank of 105 in the 2020 Prosperity Index among 167 covered countries and ranked 11^th in the MENA region. In fact, Lebanon lost 17 positions since 2010, yet outperformed many of its regional peers such as Algeria (global rank: 108^th, regional rank: 12^th), Iran (global rank: 120^th, regional rank: 13^th), Egypt (global rank: 121^st, regional rank: 14^th), and Iraq (global rank: 137^th, regional rank: 15^th), only to name a few. As for the Index sub-categories, Lebanon fared best in terms of living conditions (57^th) and education (62^nd) but fared worst in terms of social capital (152^nd) and economic quality (147^th).