Stop counting

11 April 2013 By Edward Hadas Follow @edwardhadas

The new Social Progress Index sounds as if it might measure the development of nations more convincingly than crude GDP. Sadly the SPI input indicators are arbitrary, and the decision to omit economic output is silly. The results are either unsurprising or weird.

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The first Social Progress Index, which claims to measure national social and environmental performance, was released on April 11. The index, designed by Michael Porter of Harvard Business School in collaboration with economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and some other institutions. It was published by the Social Progress Imperative, set up to develop this and related indices.
According to a press release from the Social Progress Imperative, The SPI measures, “wellbeing based entirely on social and environmental indicators and covering basic human needs, social infrastructure and opportunity.” The initial compilation includes 50 nations. The top 10 are Sweden, the UK, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, the United States, Australia, Japan, France and Spain. The bottom 10 are Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Mozambique, Rwanda, Kenya, Senegal, India, Bangladesh and Ghana.

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