Why Do Some Countries Get Rich While Others Don’t?

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 08:54:46 +0000

Why do some countries become fabulously wealthy while others remain trapped in poverty? Research shows that prosperity can happen anywhere … with the right ingredients.

In 2022, scholars at the Atlantic Council ranked the world’s countries by wealth. Then, they ranked them by freedom. Then they compared the lists.

What they found was that the freest countries were all among the most prosperous … and virtually all the unfree countries were poor.

The pattern was consistent. Citizens of the freest countries were *six times* wealthier than those in the “mostly unfree” countries. What’s more, a similar study found that the *poorest people* in free countries were twice as wealthy as the *average* person in unfree countries .

Why? People have a natural incentive to make money. So, when they’re given the opportunity and tools to care for themselves and their families … that’s exactly what they do.

We’ve seen this play out in recent history when countries were split between free and unfree: East and West Germany; North and South Korea; Taiwan and China. Whenever and wherever people are allowed to prosper … they will.

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