DUSHANBE, April 10, 2015, Asia-Plus — The U.S.-based nonprofit organization, Social Progress Imperative (SPI), ranks Tajikistan 96th among 133 national sin terms of social progress.
The 2015 Social Progress Index that was released on April 8 includes 133 countries covering 94% of the world’s population, plus 28 countries with partial data.
Tajikistan with its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita amounting to little more than 2,400 USD is placed between Iran (95th) and Senegal (97th)
Kazakhstan has the highest rating among the Central Asian nations – it is ranked 83 rd (Kazakhstan’s GDP per capita amounts to more than 22,400 USD).
Uzbekistan is ranked 90th and Kyrgyzstan – 93rd. SPI did not provide information about Turkmenistan.
Meanwhile, Russia with GDP per capital amounting to 23,500 USD is ranked 71st.
Norway tops the list. It is followed by Sweden, Switzerland, Iceland and New Zealand.
The Social Progress Index 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 wellbeing, and opportunity to progress show the relative performance of nations. The index is published by the nonprofit Social Progress Imperative. 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 personal safety, ecosystem sustainability, health and wellness, shelter, sanitation, equity and inclusion and personal freedom and choice.
The three different dimensions of the model—Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity—are each weighted equally in the overall index; each of these dimensions is calculated as the sum of four components, each of which is equally weighted. Finally, each component is based on a varying number of individual indicators of social progress within that component. The component scores are calculated using a procedure called principal component factor analysis, which allows one to calculate an aggregate score from multiple indicators related to a common concept.
