The Social Progress Index (SPI) measures the extent to which countries provide for the social and environmental needs of their citizens. Fifty-four indicators in the areas of basic human needs, foundations of well-being, and opportunity to progress show the relative performance of nations. The index is published by the nonprofit Social Progress Imperative, and is based on the writings of Amartya Sen, Douglass North, and Joseph Stiglitz. The SPI measures the well-being of a society by observing social and environmental outcomes directly rather than the economic factors. The social and environmental factors include wellness (including health, shelter and sanitation), equality, inclusion, sustainability and personal freedom and safety.
Introduction and methodology
The index combines three dimensions:
Basic human needs
Foundations of well-being
Opportunity
Each dimension includes four components, which are each composed of between three and five specific outcome indicators. The included indicators are selected because they are measured appropriately, with a consistent methodology, by the same organization across all (or essentially all) of the countries in the sample. Together, this framework aims to capture a broad range of interrelated factors revealed by the scholarly literature and practitioner experience as underpinning social progress.
Two key features of the Social Progress Index are: the exclusion of economic variables the use of outcome measures rather than inputs
Social Progress Imperative evaluated hundreds of possible indicators while developing the Social Progress Index, including engaging researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to determine what indicators best differentiated the performance of nations. The index uses outcome measures when there are sufficient data available or the closest possible proxies.
History
In 2010, a group of scholars and business leaders sought to develop a better measure of a country's level of development and, by extension, better understand its development priorities. Under the technical guidance of Professors Michael Porter from Harvard Business School and Scott Stern from MIT, the group formed a US-based nonprofit called the Social Progress Imperative and launched a beta version of the Social Progress Index for 50 countries in 2013 to measure a comprehensive array of components of social and environmental performance and aggregate them into an overall framework.
This work was influenced by the contributions of Amartya Sen on social development, as well as by the recent call for action in the report "Mismeasuring Our Lives" by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. The Social Progress Index was released in 2014 for 133 countries with a second version in 2015.
On July 11, 2013, Social Progress Imperative's chairman and professor at Harvard Business School, Michael Porter, addressed the United Nations 6th Ministerial Forum for Development and discussed the Social Progress Index.
In addition to the global Social Progress Index, the methodology used to create it has been adapted to measure social and environmental performance in smaller areas, such as the Amazon region of Brazil. Other projects include a Social Progress Index for Guatemala City. Fundación Paraguaya has integrated elements of the Social Progress Index into its Poverty Stoplight tool. The national government of Paraguay is setting a target for Social Progress Index performance alongside GDP targets.
The Guardian reported that the European Commission had agreed to partner with Social Progress Imperative to create a Social Progress Index for the European Union. The EU Social Progress Index was published in October 2016.
A similar index, although with some differences compared to the nation list (and therefore not directly comparable), has been published for the individual U.S. states.