Legatum first began establishing metrics around prosperity in 2006 when we engaged a team of Oxford University professors. Together, we sought to define the pillars that would allow us to understand the overall quality of life for a nation’s people, using an evidence-based approach. Looking beyond economic indicators, we identified metrics that affect wellbeing, such as family relationships, the role of the community and the environment. The report produced from this work was the foundation upon which the Prosperity Index was established.

In 2007, Legatum founded the Institute with an initial remit to specifically focus on authorship of the Index. In subsequent years, the Institute extended its programmes into other areas such as Russian disinformation, refugees, international development and the health of society.

Today, the Legatum Institute’s CEO is Baroness Philippa Stroud, a peer in the UK’s House of Lords and formerly co-founder and Chief Executive of The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).

Since joining, Philippa has deepened the Institute’s work in the areas of poverty and social breakdown, in particular through the establishment of the Social Metrics Commission, which was set up to provide a new measure for poverty in the UK.

The Legatum Institute currently runs a number of research programmes that analyse the factors impacting the wellbeing of individuals, communities and nations around the world. These include specific programmes focused on exploring prosperity across Africa, the US and the UK, using the global Legatum Prosperity Index as a framework; as well as Global People Movements, which aims to identify the solutions that would assist migrants and refugees; 21st Century International Development, which examines how nations succeed; and Economic Openness, which aims to provide the international community with tools to identify and tackle barriers to economic progress.

The Institute uses its research to inform social discourse and move the debate on prosperity away from the traditional, narrow focus on wealth or GDP, towards a broader, more holistic conversation focusing on other factors that contribute to individual and societal wellbeing.

The Institute works with individuals from the business community, politics, and academia, as well as the general public, to create empirical research and open debate to enlighten perspectives and public policy.

The Legatum Institute continues to grow and evolve in its reach and remit, building tools that track the indicators of progress as well as creating research programmes that inspire change in a wide range of different areas.

In everything the Institute approaches it aims to be helpful and impactful, and to build pathways from poverty to prosperity.

Some of its recent outcomes include:

1. The Prosperity Index is featured as a key metric of success by a number of governments and international organisations, including the World Economic Forum and the US Agency for International Development.

2. The Institute’s measure of poverty in the UK was featured as the headline measure of the UN Rapporteur on extreme poverty; has been a central part of a House of Commons Work and Pensions Select Committee report; is used as the most reliable measure by numerous media outlets and fact check websites; was referenced in the Labour Party 2019 manifesto; and is in the process of being adopted as an official national statistic by the Government.

3. The Institute’s work on economic openness has been used by a number of governments around the world as a reference point for priority areas, as well as by leaders in the global business community to argue the case for policies to support free trade and open economies.