MANAMA: Canada is the best performing G8 country in the Social Progress Index rankings.
The United States finishes 16th behind Canada (7th) and the UK (13th) and Russia ranked 80th in the Index, below the Ukraine (62nd) and Georgia (66th).
According to the Index findings New Zealand is this year’s top performing country and the Netherlands is the best performing country in European Union.
Slovenia and Estonia are Europe’s big success story, scoring better than France, Spain and Italy. Of the big EU countries Italy is a big under-performer, also coming in behind former Soviet bloc countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.
Costa Rica and Uruguay are the star performers in Latin America while Brazil is the top of the BRICS, followed by South Africa, Russia, China, and India.
The Social Progress Index 2014 ranks 132 countries based on their social and environmental performance. Higher GDP per capita does bring benefits, particularly on ‘Basic Human Needs’ but rising incomes do not guarantee improvement on ‘Ecosystem Sustainability’, ‘Health and Wellness’ and ‘Opportunity’.
The Social Progress Index, created by a team led by Professor Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School, is designed as a complement to GDP and other economic indicators to provide a more holistic understanding of countries’ overall performance.