Economics

What countries rank high in Social Progress Index?



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The Social Progress Index is published by Washington-based organization “Social Progress Imperative”, to estimate the ability of a country to fulfill the social and environmental needs of their people. Citizens always demand a better life, and the index helps the government to analyze the well-being of the people in terms of social outcomes.

The old measures of national income, for example calculating GDP per capita, are not enough to capture the minute details and overall economic development of a country. This index helps in the judgment with few crucial indicators like fulfillment of basic human needs, foundations of well-being and opportunities available to people.

Basic human needs include nutrition and basic medical care, water and sanitation, shelter, and personal safety. Aspects included in the foundations of well-being are: access to basic knowledge, access to information and communications, health and wellness, and environmental quality. Opportunity refers to personal right, personal freedom and choice, tolerance and inclusion, and access to advanced education.

The 2017 Social Progress Index ranked 128 countries, in accordance to the availability of components considered in the estimation. As expected, countries which fare well in the Social Progress Index are the developed countries. Access to information, communication and advanced education has shown a significant global improvement, however, there is either decline or stagnation in Personal Rights, Personal Safety, and Tolerance and Inclusion.


European countries have emerged at the top five positions, with Denmark grabbing the first rank. The nation has scored 90.57. Finland stood second, having a score of 90.53 and Iceland bagged the third place with a score of 90.27, followed by Norway and Switzerland.

Canada was quite close to scoring 90, however it emerged sixth with a score of 89.84.

Chad, Afghanistan and Central African Republic performed the least and stand at the bottom of the index, with scores below 40. Central African Republic only scored 28.38.

For information of how each nation scores on the Social Progress Index, refer to the table below.

Rank Country Social Progress Index (Score)
1 Denmark 90.57
2 Finland 90.53
3 Iceland 90.27
4 Norway 90.27
5 Switzerland 90.1
6 Canada 89.84
7 Netherlands 89.82
8 Sweden 89.66
9 Australia 89.3
10 New Zealand 89.3
11 Ireland 88.91
12 United Kingdom 88.73
13 Germany 88.5
14 Austria 87.98
15 Belgium 87.15
16 Spain 86.96
17 Japan 86.44
18 United States of America 86.43
19 France 85.92
20 Portugal 85.44
21 Slovenia 84.32
22 Czech Republic 84.22
23 Estonia 82.96
24 Italy 82.62
25 Chile 82.54
26 Korea, South 82.08
27 Cyprus 81.15
28 Costa Rica 81.03
29 Israel 80.61
30 Slovakia 80.22
31 Uruguay 80.09
32 Poland 79.65
33 Greece 78.92
34 Latvia 78.61
35 Lithuania 78.09
36 Croatia 78.04
37 Hungary 77.32
38 Argentina 75.9
39 Mauritius 75.18
40 Panama 74.61
41 Bulgaria 74.42
42 Kuwait 74.12
43 Brazil 73.97
44 Romania 73.53
45 Serbia 73.41
46 Jamaica 72.42
47 Peru 72.15
48 Mexico 71.93
49 Colombia 71.72
50 Malaysia 71.14
51 Tunisia 71.09
52 Albania 70.97
53 Georgia 70.8
54 Montenegro 70.01
55 Ecuador 69.97
56 Jordan 69.85
57 Saudi Arabia 69.45
58 Macedonia 69.35
59 Armenia 69.01
60 Paraguay 68.73
61 Turkey 68.68
62 Thailand 68.51
63 Dominican Republic 68.42
64 Ukraine 68.35
65 Belarus 67.8
66 South Africa 67.25
67 Russia 67.17
68 Philippines 67.1
69 Bolivia 66.93
70 El Salvador 66.43
71 Lebanon 66.31
72 Moldova 66.31
73 Sri Lanka 66.16
74 Kazakhstan 66.01
75 Algeria 65.41
76 Azerbaijan 65.33
77 Kyrgyzstan 65.33
78 Morocco 65.25
79 Indonesia 65.1
80 Botswana 64.44
81 Nicaragua 64.17
82 Egypt 63.76
83 China 63.72
84 Guatemala 62.62
85 Uzbekistan 62.02
86 Mongolia 62
87 Namibia 61.98
88 Iran 61.93
89 Honduras 61.76
90 Ghana 61.44
91 Nepal 60.08
92 Tajikistan 58.87
93 India 58.39
94 Senegal 58.31
95 Kenya 56.17
96 Myanmar 55.69
97 Bangladesh 54.84
98 Cambodia 54.54
99 Laos 54.17
100 Malawi 53.09
101 Rwanda 52.78
102 Swaziland 52.64
103 Lesotho 51.74
104 Benin 51.69
105 Pakistan 51.54
106 Cote D’Ivoire 50.65
107 Tanzania 50.21
108 Zimbabwe 50.1
109 Nigeria 50.01
110 Burkina Faso 49.75
111 Uganda 49.59
112 Liberia 49.34
113 Mauritania 48.44
114 Republic of the Congo 48.24
115 Togo 48.21
116 Mozambique 47.9
117 Cameroon 47.83
118 Mali 47.75
119 Madagascar 47.4
120 Sierra Leone 47.1
121 Ethiopia 45.29
122 Yemen 43.46
123 Guinea 43.4
124 Niger 42.97
125 Angola 40.73
126 Chad 35.69
127 Afghanistan 35.66
128 Central African Republic 28.38

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