Which countries are doing well on key indicators of health, the environment, crime prevention, economic prosperity and education. ?

.. and which are the independent variables that are statistically correlated with and conducive to, higher scores on the Better Place Index ?

There is a strong correlation between GDP per Capita and Democracy (as measured by Freedom House). There is a positive Pearsons’ correlation of R= .46 between democracy (as measured by Freedom House) and GDP per capita, Based on 521 cases, this association is significant at the 0.01 level, 2-tailed.

There is an even stronger relationship between BPI and levels of democratization. *

There is not a similarly strong relationship between provisions for citizen-initiated referendums and the BPI Correlations. However, using the conventional criteria proposed by Cohen (1989), there is a weak correlation of R=. 265, between BPI and a dummy variable for provisions for citizen initiated referendums, statistically significant at the 0.01 level, 2-tailed, N: 521). While there is thus a weak statistical correlation between BPI and Citizen initiated referendums, there is no statistically significant relationship between GDP per Capita and Citizen Initiated referendums.

For the period 2016-2018, there is, in fact, a positive correlation between the number of immigrants per 100.000 citizens and the GDP per Capita. Based on a total number of 521 cases), this correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed), which means there is a margin of error of less than plus/minus one percent. There is a slight smaller correlation between BPI and the number of immigrants (as measured above). Using the broader BPI measure the correlation is R=. 38, also statistically is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) and based on a similar N =521.

Higher taxes are statistically associated with a higher GDP per Capita Correlations (R =.375, N: 521, statistically significant at the 0.01 level, 2-tailed), and this almost as strong when we use the BPI measure (R=.358, N: 52, statistically significant at the 0.01 level, 2-tailed).

Correlations in real-world metrics between measures of freedom and economic and social well-being.

* BPI Report :: FreedomHouse Status and BPI score by Country