Slovenia thus made amends for last year’s ranking of 18th. It scored 56.3 out of a possible 100 points. Slovenia performed best in the areas of economic sustainability, where it ranked first, and social capital, where it ranked fourth. It ranked ninth in the area of governance efficiency and 20th in the area of intellectual capital and innovation. Slovenia’s worst results were in the areas of resource efficiency and intensity, where it ranked 87th, and natural capital, where it ranked 72nd.

Sweden ranked first for the seventh consecutive year. Countries from northern Europe occupy the majority of places at the top of the index. Only two non-European countries (Japan at 10th place and South Korea at 12th place) are ranked in the top twenty of the index. The average result of all countries studied was 44.1 points, while Sweden recorded 60.7 points as the top-ranked country. This means that all countries have a great deal of room for development in the area of sustainability.

The areas measured by the index include:

• natural capital: the given natural environment, including the availability of resources and the level of depletion of those resources;
• resource efficiency and intensity: the efficiency of using available resources as a measurement of operational competitiveness in a resource-constraint world;
• social capital: health, safety, freedom, equality and life satisfaction with in a country;
• intellectual capital and innovation: the capability to generate wealth and jobs through innovation and value-added industries in the globalised markets;
• economic sustainability: economic sustainability and competitiveness reflect the ability to create wealth through sustainable economic development; and
• governance efficiency: the results of core state areas and investments – infrastructure, market and employment structure, and the provision of a framework for sustainable wealth generation.