A family spends time together in Hà Nội's pedestrian zone near Hoàn Kiếm Lake. VNA/VNS Photo

Prof. Trần Thọ Đạt*

Using GDP as a proxy for development can fail to recognise that sustainable development is affected by multiple factors and the significant vulnerabilities that may exist in countries targeting important levels of GDP.  Effectively measuring what counts can have a transformative impact and help lead the world toward a more just, inclusive, and sustainable development path.

The Economist on May 24th, 2023 published an article about country ranking of the Social Progress Imperative according to the dataset published on May 24. According to this ranking, Việt Nam stays at the 88th in the Table of the 170 countries ranked. Compared to 1990, Việt Nam's social progress increased faster than GDP per capita and the Basic Requirement Response in this index was much higher than that of many countries ranked above Việt Nam's 88th position in the Table.

The Social Progress Index (SPI) provides a rich framework for measuring many aspects of social progress, measuring success, and better promoting human well-being. It combines fifty-three social and environmental performance indicators to calculate an overall score for countries, based on tiered scores that include measures of health, safety, education,  technology, individual rights and freedom, etc. Overall, the Social Progress Index measures at least some aspect of social progress for more than 99.97 per cent of the world's population.

GDP per capita is an important economic indicator to measure the wealth and economic development of a country. It is calculated by dividing the total GDP of a country by the population in that country. This indicator is often used to compare levels of economic development between different countries and allows to recognise differences in living standards and levels of development across economies. However, the GDP per capita indicator also has disadvantages. It does not fully reflect social, environmental, and quality of life factors other than economic goods. In addition to GDP per capita, it is necessary to consider other indicators and measures to get a more comprehensive view of a country's economic development and quality of life.

A dataset published on May 24 by Social Progress Imperative, a nonprofit, aims to show just that. The organisation ranks 170 countries in terms of how much they have provided for their citizens, using metrics other than wealth. There are many organizations that offer different sets of criteria for measuring development using different methods, in addition to comparing GDP per capita. For example, the United Nations Human Development Index combines GDP per capita with measures of health and education. But the Social Progress Index does not include GDP at all. Instead, it tracks fifty-three indicators and groups them into three categories that give equal weight: basic human needs (such as food and water), foundation for development long-term (education and health care) and “opportunity” (including individual rights and freedoms).

This year's rankings still show the link between wealth and happiness: the wealthiest countries are often the ones where people thrive. SPI's results for 2022 put Norway at the top, with a score of 90.7. South Sudan is at the bottom of the table. Overall, wealthy European countries are among the highest ranked while countries in sub-Saharan Africa are the lowest.

The SPI rankings show how scores have changed from 1990 to 2020. After rapid advances in the 1980s and 1990s, improvements in human welfare appear to have slowed. Progress in some regions, such as Latin America, has stalled. The US, meanwhile, is lagging. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has hurt global progress even more.

The regions with the highest increase in happiness were East Asia and the Pacific. Taken together, the countries there improved their SPI scores by an average of 18 points between 1990 and 2020. Much of that was driven by the rise of China's middle class, as reflected in the scores, higher in the indicators of health, education and provision of basic needs. Việt Nam has made an impressive improvement when the Social Progress Ranking Index increased from 49 to 70 points (100 points scale) in the period 1990-2020, equivalent to a significant improvement of thirteen places in the Ranking, in which the score of the component “basic human needs” has a high score of 83 points. South Asia has also made considerable progress. For example, India's SPI score has increased by 16 points in three decades. But it was tiny Bhutan, the inventor of “gross national happiness,” whose government targets in lieu of GDP, that made the most progress of the 170 nations. Bhutan rose 30 points as the terms to meet basic human needs increased dramatically.

Combined with GDP data, the SPI ratings show that economic growth is important, but not the sole determinant of social progress. China's GDP per capita (in purchasing power parity) increased 23-fold from 1990 to 2020, but SPI score only increased by 45 per cent. India achieved a 36 per cent increase in SPI score, from a slightly lower starting point, but with an economic growth rate increased by 9.8 folds. During the same period, Việt Nam's GDP per capita increased seventeen times and SPI increased 43 per cent.

*Prof. Trần Thọ Đạt

Chairman of Academic Board,

National Economics University, Hà Nội