The Legatum Institute, an independent policy, advisory, and advocacy organization within the Legatum group of companies, released the sixteenth edition of its Prosperity Index report titled “Prosperity Index 2023”, which consists 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 three domains (Inclusive Societies, Open Economies and Empowered People) in its assessment of each country which are further divided into twelve pillars 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 2023 Legatum Prosperity Index revealed that global prosperity has plateaued for the third year after witnessing a steady increase between 2015 and 2019, mainly on the back of a general inclination towards deterioration of institutions and democratic processes. More specifically, the report pointed out that personal freedoms have worsened in 108 countries, as curbs on freedom of speech and assembly and access to information have increased. The report added that censorship is gaining ground around the world and even in democratic countries. The institute also commented that democracies globally are being threatened, citing in this context the Russian invasion of Ukraine and China’s threats to invade Taiwan.

According to the report, Denmark came in 1^st in the world in the 2023 Prosperity Index, followed by Sweden (global rank: 2^nd), Norway (global rank: 3^rd), Finland (global rank: 4^th) and Switzerland (global rank: 5^th), only to name a few. On the regional level, the United Arab Emirates came in first and ranked 44^th in the world, followed by Qatar (regional rank: 2^nd, world rank: 46^th), Kuwait (regional rank: 3^rd, world rank: 60^th), Bahrain (regional rank: 4^th, world rank: 62^nd) and Oman (regional rank: 5^th, world rank: 67^th) among others. On the local front, Lebanon lost five positions in its overall Prosperity Index rank when compared to the previous year and came 112^th in the world in the 2023 Prosperity Index among 167 covered countries and 12^th in the MENA region. Despite showing some deterioration in 2023, Lebanon still outperformed many of its regional peers such as Egypt (global rank: 121^st, regional rank: 13^th), Iran (global rank: 126^th, regional rank: 14^th), Iraq (global rank: 140^th, regional rank: 15^th), Libya (global rank: 146^th, regional rank: 16^th), Syria (global rank: 159^th, regional rank: 17^th) and Yemen (global rank: 166^th, regional rank: 18^th). As for the Index sub-categories, Lebanon fared best in terms of education (65^th in the world) and living conditions (83^rd in the world) but fared worst in terms of social capital (165^th in the world) and economic quality (161^st in the world).