This viz set out to answer the question of how Australia can improve our Prosperity Index Rank by looking at particular areas of concern, and comparing to our New Zealand neighbours…
Australia’s PI rank has taken a significant dive over time, while NZ remains quite consistent and have been in the top 10 since 2007. I will set out to find out why there has been such a drop for Australia.
Looking at NZ, they have only 2 areas for improvement being Infrastructure/Market Access, and Living Conditions. They also have 7 of the 12 areas that have an average ranking of within the top 10, impressive. For Australia, our areas for improvement are Health, and Infrastructure/Market Access, while Enterprise Conditions and Safety and Security need attention, and there is one big issue with Natural Environment. Australia also only have 2 of their 12 areas with a top 10 rank. Breaking this down in more depth…
Infrastructure
- Our water rank is really quite low, therefor improving water access in struggling areas is a point of emphasis
- The import tarrif barriers tax is too high
Health
- Behavioural Risk Factors are a big problem: things like alcohol and drugs, poor diet, obesity and lack of physical activity. There isn’t enough focus on improving BRF and we are actually getting worse over time
- Mental health and the services surrounding this need improvements
Other
- Our labour market flexibility has gotten much worse since 2013, but is starting to get better again
- Significant rise in terrorism since 2019
- Our emissions are amongst the worst in the world and drastically need improvement
By focusing on these areas Australia can get into the top 10 rank for Prosperity Index
