According to the Deloitte Slovenija Company, Slovenia takes the 20th place in the world according to the index of social progress, which is the best indicator among the countries of the Central and South-Eastern Europe. The American Social Progress Imperative Organization in collaboration with the Deloitte Company published these data.
The study on the social progress of specific countries comprised 133 countries. The SPI 2016 Index showed that among 133 evaluated countries, Slovenia achieved the overall result of 84.27%, which brought it to the 20th position. According to the “basic human needs” indicator, Slovenia reached the index of 94.75% or the 15th position. According to the second indicator — “fundamentals of well-being”, the index exceeded 83%, which corresponded to the 23rd position. According to the third indicator — “opportunities”, this index reached the level of 75.92%, which eventually brought it to the total 20th position.
The global index of social progress between Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia
Slovenia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Lithuania, Hungary, and Latvia, referring to a group of comparable countries, achieved very good results in the sphere of access to food products and primary health care (Slovenia — 99.45%!). However, they feature insufficiently high levels of health and social security, in particular, due to the large number of deaths caused by non-communicable diseases (Slovenia — 65.82%), as commented by the Deloitte Slovenija Company.
“The global index indicator is 62.8%, which the world as a whole, in terms of overall social progress, places somewhere between Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. It is also interesting that more than half of young people in the world live in countries with a low level of social progress, where there is limited access to basic health care, clean water, security, personal freedom and tolerance,” such is the comment by Polona Chufer Klep, the managing director of the Deloitte Company Consulting Department. According to Polona Chufer Klep, Slovenia features very good indicators regarding the opportunities for individuals, such as personal freedom and freedom of choice (80.26%), as well as tolerance, particularly towards migrants (67.83%). Slovenia also achieved a good result within the framework of indicators that measure the satisfaction of basic human needs (92.89%).
When Slovenia is comparable to the US
In a global comparative perspective of the SPI index, Slovenia (84.27%) is directly comparable with the United States (84.62%), although its GDP (purchasing power parity per capita) is lower by almost half ($ 27,924 vs. $ 50,932 in 2014). The study also shows that economic progress is not always comparable to the high levels of SPI index. Therefore, Polona Chufer Klep believes that “in conducting their policy, the world leaders must also take into account other contexts of human and society progress.”
Very high rates of social progress, according to the study, were reached in Finland (90.09%), Canada, Denmark, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Holland, Great Britain, Iceland, New Zealand and Ireland (all — above 87%). The majority of EU countries demonstrate a high level of social progress. The extremely low indicators belong to the African countries of the Sahel region and of the Central Africa as well as to the Middle East, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and some countries of the South-East Asia. The lowest rating index belongs to the Central African Republic (30.03%), followed by the Republic of Chad (36.38%) and Afghanistan (35.89%).
Besides, the fact is confirmed that the countries with high results in the SPI index have the highest indicators within the criteria of social state and according to the criterion of multiculturalism.
Source: delo.si
