Prosperity Score
Bangladesh slips to 96th position
Bangladesh has slipped nine places to 96th on a list of the world’s most successful countries, mainly due to lower performances in education, personal freedom, health, and safety and security.
The country stood 87th in the 2009 ranking of Prosperity Index, a survey of the Legatum Institute, a London-based international think tank. The survey was posted online Tuesday.
The institute is a leading advocate for a holistic understanding of prosperity, one that combines wealth and well-being as measures of individual and national prosperity.
The annual survey of 110 countries, based on the wealth and happiness of their citizens, ranks Bangladesh below South Asian neighbours such as Sri Lanka, India and Nepal.
But India suffered a huge slippage, as the world’s fourth largest economy moved down to 88th from 45th last year. This year, Sri Lanka has been ranked 59th and Nepal 91st.
Bangladesh has, however, fared well compared to other South Asian nations such as Pakistan, which has been ranked 109th.
The index has crowned Norway in the first place, followed by Denmark in the second, and Finland third.
Last year’s bottom-placed Zimbabwe came last also in this year’s ranking.
The survey has covered 90 percent of the world’s population, taking into account factors that contribute to the overall prosperity — such as education standards, health, personal freedom, safety, security and democracy.
“It (Bangladesh) has moved down mainly due to lower rankings in education, personal freedom, health, and safety and security,” Jiehae Choi, research and programme analyst of Legatum Institute, told The Daily Star in an email.
Bangladesh has stood 66th on economic fundamentals because of relatively unstable economy, with inflation hovering around 8.9 percent.
In the indicator of entrepreneurship and opportunity, the country of 16.44 crore people has been ranked 95th, as the Bangladeshis’ entrepreneurial energies are frustrated by poor infrastructure and high start-up costs.
Bangladesh was ranked 95th in governance, as the survey said the government of the country is repressive and unstable, but highly popular with citizens.
The country has come out 91st in education as its quality does not match the global standards, 90th in health as the country struggles to provide its citizens with basic care due to a fund dearth, and 94th in safety and security.
The country stood 46th in the personal freedom index due to poor civic rights. The authors of the Legatum Institute, however, said the Bangladeshis live in a society with the highest rate of tolerance towards ethnic and religious minorities.
Bangladesh has been ranked 109th in the social capital index because of poor social cohesion although the country has high rates of marriage and religious attendance.
