Evaluation of the Prosperity Levels of EU and EU Candidate Countries by Clustering and PSI Method

Abstract

Although prosperity is often associated with the word wealth, it also includes other factors that may be independent of wealth, such as happiness and health. The prosperity state can be defined as a developing, growing, wealth state and a successful social status. Increasing the levels of prosperity is a goal of states. States can create communities in cooperation with other states to improve their level of prosperity. One of these communities is the European Union (EU), which is established by European states. This chapter evaluates the position of EU member states and EU candidate countries' prosperity levels compared to world states. In the study, 2018 Legatum Institute prosperity index of 149 countries was used. These countries are divided into groups by using clustering analysis from data mining techniques. The countries are evaluated using the Preference Selective Index (PSI).