An interesting blending of the History of top civilizations (currently the USA) and of Economics (Gross Domestic Product per capita of countries) is the:

Social Progress Index

Its website: www.socialprogressimperative.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Social-Progress-Index-2014-Executive-Summary.pdf

Its page 6 shows charts with SPI ratings ranging from 88.24 (top) to 32.60

#1 88.24 New Zealand $25,857 GDP per capita

#2 88.19 Switzerland $39,293 GDP per capita

to

#132 32.60 Chad $ 1,870 GDP per capita

The Social Progress Index allows us, for the first time, to evaluate the effectiveness with which a country’s economic success is turned into social progress, and vice versa.

The Social Progress Index shows a clear positive correlation with economic performance (0.85), measured by GDP per capita. However, the data clearly demonstrates that economic performance alone does not fully explain social progress. (For example, USA with the chart's top $45,336 GDP per capita in 2014 ranks only #16 in Social Progress Index, just below Ireland.)

Basic Human Needs improve rapidly with GDP per capita as income grows from very low levels and then progress flattens out as income continues to rise. Our data also show that many areas of social progress are not guaranteed by economic growth, and require their own distinct policy agendas.

One wonders how the GDP/ capita of the Roman empire or the Dutch in the 1600's might relate to their Social Progress Indexes. Both civilizations did advance living standards more than their rivals.

Several other, related comparisons among current nations have also been measured against GDP per capita:

Happiness – at http://social-quotient.info/sq.4mg.com/NationHappiness.htm

Corruption – at http://transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016 Note that the top (least corrupt) nations are very similar to the top Social Progress Index nations

See the similar country rankings for the Index of Economic Freedom at https://www.heritage.org/index/

IQ of nations– at http://social-quotient.info/sq.4mg.com/NationIQ.htm