Norway tops list of prosperous nations

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- A British think tank released its annual prosperity ranking of 110 countries Tuesday with Europe dominating the top of the list and Africa the bottom.

The Legatum Institute, based in London, said in an announcement the Prosperity Index is an effort to understand how various factors "influence a country's growth and the happiness of its citizens." Lord Peter Mandelson, who served as business secretary in former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's cabinet, was the keynote speaker at a conference in Dubai where the report was released.

Norway topped the list, followed in the top 10 by Denmark, Finland, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United States. The next 10 were mostly European, with Singapore, Japan and Taiwan at 17, 18 and 20.

Zimbabwe, where the economy has been destroyed in recent years, was No. 110 with Pakistan at 109. Most of the countries in the bottom 20 were African, along with some other poor Asian and Middle Eastern countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia and Yemen.