What countries rank high in Social Progress Index?
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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