According to the
Social Progress Index 2014, which is based on 54 indicators of social and environmental factors under the chapters „Basic Human Needs“, „Foundations of Wellbeing“ and „Opportunity“, Europe is doing an outstanding job of transforming economic success into social progress. Only two union members (Romania and Bulgaria) are quoted in the third and worst-but-one tier of results, in which most countries are rated.
While there are many competing metrics in the “Better than GDP”-department, the setup here seems intuitively tangible: While “basic human needs” improve rapidly which GDP per capita income growth, high income levels show little correlation with social progress as the relationship between “opportunity” and wealth is more variable.
I wonder how
size (i.e. population numbers) plays a role here. The countries in the top ten are either smallish (sorry Iceland) or lightly populated (Australia). While no subject of research, having a tolerably operative democracy certainly seems to help.
Via
+Gerhard Fehr #europe
