Wealth of nations index

The popular European weblog carniola.org is managed by Michael Manske of Slovenia. It is a particularly useful platform for a variety of observations! Thank you Michael for the kind comments and for adding Wired Temples to your blogroll (favourite links). From the latest entry on the Glory of Carniola:

I'm grateful to Robert of the Maltese blog Wired Temples for pointing out that Slovenia took first place in the 2004 Wealth of Nations Triangle Index. The index is compiled by the Boston-based WorldPaper, of which I know very little. (Actually nothing, but their "about" page is here if you're curious.) According to this, their index is calculated by measuring: "...a nation’s wealth as a balance among three legs of a triangle, one each for Economic Environment, Information-Exchange Environment, and Social Environment.

Each leg is composed of 21 equally weighted variables, with data collected in 2002 or 2003 from a number of internationally respected sources (see Sources). The more balance, the better the chances for sustained long-term development."

The triangle, which somehow reminds me of the Time Cube, allows
for a maximum score of 2400; or 800 per category. You can see that Slovenia did
the best in the social category, followed by information and economy. Despite
being number one, it still scored 141 points below the average "developed
country." (See the bottom of this page.) Nicholas Sullivan gives a brief summary of this year's results here, while Dušan Snoj (editor of GospodarskiVestnik) provides a look at Slovenia's "rise to number one" here.