New Zealand ranked in first place in a new survey of 132 nations, based on measurements that include fulfillment of needs and basic quality of life. The research, called the Social Progress Index, was conducted by the The Social Progress Imperative, a nonprofit that defines its mission “to improve the quality of lives of people around the world, particularly the least well off, by advancing global social progress.”

The results of the survey are not novel, even if some of the research methodology is. Nations that do well on similar surveys rank at the top of the Social Progress Index. Wretchedly poor and war-torn nations rank near the bottom.

The study breaks nations into several tiers:

The top three countries in the world in terms of social progress are New Zealand, Switzerland, and Iceland. These three countries, closely grouped in terms of score, are relatively small in terms of populations. They score strongly across all social progress dimensions. The remainder of the top ten includes a group of Northern European nations (Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark), Canada, and Australia. Together with the top three, these countries round out a distinct “top tier” of countries in terms of social progress scores

This list of nations is often at the top of studies of national well-being. All have homogeneous populations and strong social support for their populations, and also are economically advanced economies. Most have low national debt loads.

A notch lower is a second tier of countries that includes a group of 13 countries, ranging from Austria to the Czech Republic. This group includes a number of the world’s leading economies in terms of GDP and population, including five members of the G-7: Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States, and France.

While Americans no doubt would rather not be lumped with the Czech Republic, based on the Social Progress Index, the United States and the Czech Republic both have middling education and health care. America’s gross domestic product (GDP) may be well ahead of any other nation, but this report points out that the benefits of wealth do not reach most people in the population.

The next level of social progress is a third tier of countries, ranging from Slovakia to Israel. This diverse group of nations includes countries at sharply different levels of economic development, ranging from Costa Rica (which significantly out-performs its rank in terms of GDP) to the United Arab Emirates (which has one of the highest measured GDPs per capita in the world but is ranked 37th in terms of SPI). Clearly high GDP per capita a one does not guarantee social progress.

It may trouble some analysts and economists that nations as diverse as Slovakia and Israel are compared when their histories and cultures, and probably the expectations of the residents, are so different.

And:

At the next, fourth, tier is a large group of approximately 50 countries ranging from Kuwait at 40th to Morocco at 91st. These countries are closely bunched in terms of their overall Social Progress Index score, but have widely differing strengths and weaknesses

And:

A fifth tier of countries, ranging from Uzbekistan (92nd) to Pakistan (124th), registers substantially lower social progress scores than the fourth. Many of these countries also have low GDP per capita, but some are much more highly ranked on GDP per capita.

Finally, a bottom tier of eight countries registers the world’s lowest levels of social progress, from Yemen (125th) to Chad (132nd). The Social Progress Index provides evidence that extreme poverty and poor social performance often go hand-in-hand.

Most evaluations of the well-being of the residents of the world’s countries find the regions of central Africa and violent regions like Pakistan well represented in the lowest tier. To that extent, the research reveals the obvious.

Several times a year, think-tanks issue reports on the overall quality of life of the world’s residents, nation by nation. The results rarely vary much. Long established nations with white populations, high incomes and good social services do well. Areas that always include the poorest parts of Africa do not. The Social Progress Index findings do not give us any new information.

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