Measuring Global Well-Being

In a survey reported by The Economist, Norway is at the top and South Sudan, the bottom.

It all relates to where we might want to live.

Global Well-Being

We know that the GDP data alone cannot tell us about the quality of life, Yes, more affluence helps. But a GDP rank fails to emphasize other crucial variables. In a global well-being metric, the Social Progress Imperative (SPI) sidesteps the GDP and instead measures access to our basic needs, future development, and personal rights.

In the SPI’s ranking of 169 nations, Norway is #1 and South Sudan #169. Meanwhile, Bhutan (#78), the originator of the GDP alternative, the Gross National Happiness, took the biggest ranking leap from 1990 to 2020. At the same time, Venezuela (#114) fell the most.

Below, the SPI’s basic needs, future development, and personal rights components are further divided. From there, describing the ranking process, they cite the 60 “social outcome indicators” that they consider:

Sandwiched between Portugal and Malta, the U.S. placed in Tier 2, at #25. This is the top 5:

As a summary of all scores, the SPI shared the following map:

Then, looking more closely at Social Progress, they differentiated among the world’s 8 regions. In a separate report, they used “12 components and 3 dimensions” to quantify and describe social progress. Because elevated affluence does contribute to social progress, North America and Europe have the highest scores. Called “laggards,” they cite sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia as having the least. Also, they point out that Middle East Arabian countries are the anomaly because they are not among the lower income nations that tend to have less social progress.

SPI graphed the regional differences. (In white, I’ve added more readable labels.):

Our Bottom Line: Measurement

The Social Progress Imperative surely has in mind that we “Treasure what we measure.” Excluding the wealth that GDP emphasizes, their mission tilts us in another direction. Now we can decide what should be our basic metrics for measuring our economy…

…and deciding where we might want to live..

My sources and more: The Economist was my initial source for a list of global well-being metrics. But then, I went to the SPI website for much more of the picture. I also suggest taking an econlife look at the Stiglitz Commission’s suggestions for tweaking the GDP.