Social Policy in Ontario

Canada ranks No. 2 on Social Progress Index measuring quality of life

Posted on June 29, 2016 in Inclusion Delivery System

—

TheStar.com – News/Canada – Finland narrowly beat out Canada this year to take top spot, with Denmark, Australia and Switzerland rounding out the top five.
June 29, 2016.   By SARAH-JOYCE BATTERSBY, Staff Reporter

Canada ranks second in the world when it comes to meeting the social and environmental needs of citizens, according to the 2016 Social Progress Index, released Tuesday.

It’s an improvement from last year’s sixth place showing, though Canada lags behind when it comes to access to information and environmental quality.

Combining data from the likes of the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Gallup World Poll, the index ranks 133 countries on metrics such as obesity rates, traffic deaths, tolerance for immigrants, freedom of religion, and access to piped water.

Finland narrowly beat out Canada this year to take top spot, with Denmark, Australia and Switzerland rounding out the top five.

Michael Green, the executive director of the Social Progress Imperative, which compiles the index, says the top performers show there are many models that lead to social well-being.

“I think that’s quite important in showing it’s not just one model to get social progress, it’s not just the Scandinavian or Nordic model. Other countries, Canada being a great example, have other models,” he said.

Canada got top marks for access to advanced education, ranking as the No. 1 overall in that category, which weighs factors such as the proportion of people going into advanced education, the quality of the education, and gender equity.

“It’s a very impressive achievement for Canada around that area,” Green said.

Canada also scored well for tolerance and inclusion, ranking fifth overall. The achievement is compounded by the country’s diversity and sets an example the rest of the world can learn from, Green said.

“Some countries can get a high score because they are fairly homogenous. Canada is big and diverse and is still the fifth highest,” he said. “Canada has somehow found a good mix, a good solution to this hard problem that other countries could learn from.”

Where Canada did not fare as well was with environmental factors, including biodiversity protection, waste water treatment, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Canada also lagged far behind when it comes to mobile telephone subscriptions, with only 81 subscriptions per 100 people. That puts the country at 102 out of 133, placing it between Zimbabwe and Nepal.

“It’s very strikingly low,” Green said. “That’s an area of social progress that’s really easy to fix. Countries with much lower levels of GDP have fixed it, and Canada is sort of falling back on that one.”

“Perhaps a slightly weird thing about Canada is that Canada is showing weakness in an area the world knows how to solve, on the other hand Canada is also doing pretty well on tolerance and inclusion, which is a much harder problem,” he said.

The U.S. ranked 19th overall on the index, a significant underperformance compared to its G7 allies and relative to its $50,932 per capita GDP, Green said.

Though the U.S. still logs high social progress, placing between France and Slovenia, its ranking plummets when it comes to health and wellness.

The country also lags in personal safety, basic education and environmental quality relative to its economic might.

“It tells a pretty stark story about the U.S.’s failure to turn its wealth into social progress for its citizens,” Green said.

The Social Progress Imperative, a U.S.-based not-for-profit organization, published the first official index in 2014, designed to be a complement to gross domestic product or GDP.

“There’s always been a hunch that GDP doesn’t tell the whole story,” Green said. “GDP thinks that prisons and bombs are progress. GDP says nothing about the environment. GDP says nothing about fairness or community.”

The social progress index examines the relationship between a country’s economic health and the well-being of its citizens.

“GDP is not destiny in determining social progress, and that means there are lots of policies and choices separate from economic policy that will really matter in determining the quality of life of your citizens.”

< https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2016/06/29/canada-ranks-no-2-on-social-progress-index-measuring-quality-of-life.html >

Tags: Health, housing, multiculturalism, participation, standard of living

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 29th, 2016 at 10:00 am and is filed under Inclusion Delivery System. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.