Issue National Cognitive Potential (NCP)

Summary

National Cognitive Potential, a new entry in this edition, asks whether a nation's most valuable asset might be the focused, interconnected minds of its people. It proposes a measure of a country's cognitive environment that also serves as a leading indicator of what that country can do next. The measure looks at the depth of a nation's networks and the quality of its relationships. It also captures the collective ability to reason, focus, synthesise and act quickly enough to produce future breakthroughs. Linked to the Future Humanity megatrend and to ideas that look beyond GDP, it draws on keywords such as cognitive capacity, social capital, national progress and the System of National Accounts.