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If we look solely at our gross domestic product (GDP), the UK is one of the richest countries in the world. In 2025, it had an overall GDP of £2.88 trillion, making it the planet’s sixth wealthiest nation. But a new study shows that GDP doesn’t tell the whole story.
Financial services comparison site HelloSafe argues that a ‘rich’ country should be determined by how its wealth translates in the day-to-day life of its citizens and whether it brings concrete improvements to the population’s living standards. So, it carried out a research to find out which nations are really the most well-off.
Rather than simply looking at economic output on its own, its analysis combined GDP and GNI (gross national income) with quality-of-life factors like income equality, poverty rates and the Human Development Index (HDI), which looks at life expectancy, education and GNI per capita.
When all of that is factored in, the UK doesn’t even make the top 20 in the world. In Europe, it ranks 15th (after France). Our nation got an overall prosperity score of 38.05 out of 100, which indicated ‘low to intermediate prosperity’. That means that while there is economic development, living standards are lagging and inequality and poverty are still widespread.
According to HelloSafe’s research, the most prosperous country in the world right now is Norway, followed by Ireland, then Luxembourg. They earned scores of 77.65, 75.06 and 74.39 respectively. While the UK didn’t make the cut, most of the top 20 richest countries are in Europe.
The 20 richest countries in the world 2026, according to the HelloSafe Prosperity Index 2026
- Norway
- Ireland
- Luxembourg
- Switzerland
- Iceland
- Singapore
- Denmark
- Netherlands
- Belgium
- Sweden
- Qatar
- Germany
- United Arab Emirates
- Finland
- Australia
- Austria
- United States
- Canada
- Czech Republic
- France
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