According to the latest ‘The Legatum Prosperity Index’ for 2020, Eastern Europe was the second most improved region globally in the 2010s.

The Index said that every country in Eastern Europe has improved their market access and infrastructure, with large and universal improvements in their communications infrastructure: mobile networks now service over 90% of the region’s population and the proportion of people across the region who use the internet frequently has increased from 32% to 76% since 2010.

The greatest improvements were in Azerbaijan (74th) and Albania (62nd), which saw their positions rise by 20 and 16 places, respectively. The investment environments have improved in all but three countries across the region. The improvement in the investment environment is due in large part to greater protections of property rights. This improvement has been particularly prevalent in Moldova (80th), Bosnia and Herzegovina (84th), and Armenia (49th).

Social capital, which has historically been weak across the region, has improved in 20 of the 23 countries in Eastern Europe, chiefly in the Balkan states of Serbia (85th) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (76th). Increasing public trust in institutions, such as the judicial system and the police, and strengthening social networks, led to the improvements.