Malta is among the world's richest, healthiest, happiest, and most prosperous nations, according to a long-running international survey.

The Legatum Institute's annual Prosperity Index was released on Wednesday.
It looked at more than 100 variables in 149 countries to determine the most "prosperous" country on the planet.

Norway was at the top, as it has been for eight of the past nine years, dethroned only once by New Zealand in 2016.

Malta placed 19th, up from 22 last year.

Legatum, which has been conducting the survey for 12 years, looked at per capita gross domestic product and the number of people in full-time work, the number of secure internet servers a country has and how well-rested people feel on a day-to-day basis.

The variables are then split into nine subindexes: economic quality, business environment, governance, personal freedom, social capital, safety and security, education, health, and natural environment.

Malta ranked particularly well in safety and security but ranked worse than those before it in education and the business environment. It did not do very well with regard to the natural environment. 

See the results in the table below.