World Bank wealth list ranks Britain 22nd

Using a new system of calculating national "net worth," the World Bank yesterday published a new list of the world's weathiest nations, placing Australia and Canada on top. Britain comes in at number 22, well behind the US and most leading European countries, including France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and Italy, all of which make the top 20.

The World Bank has assigned values to a country's natural resources, capital investment and productivity, and not just its income and annual eco- nomic output. The survey attaches particular importance to education and health care, as opposed to traditional considerations such as the value of machinery, factories and roads.

Resource-rich countries with small populations do better in the new system than standard measures of national wealth would suggest.

The World Bank says it is trying to focus attention on "sustainable" development, by underlining the importance of human resources over standard income-based measures of wealth.

The rich list

1. Australia

2. Canada

3. Luxembourg

4. Switzerland

5. Japan

6. Sweden

7. Iceland

8. Qatar

9. The United Arab Emirates

10. Denmark

12. The United States

22. Britain