UK 11th in Social Progress but shows up poorly in health and wellness

By The Press Association9th April 2015News EnglandHealth and Wellbeing, News England, Survey

The UK is the 11th most “socially advanced” nation in the world, according to a new report.

The ranking, based on analysis of a range of criteria in 133 countries, was described by researchers as “middle of the road”. It was a better performance than the likes of Germany (14th), the US (16th), France (21st) and Italy (31st).

However, the UK scored badly in the health and wellness category, with experts blaming high levels of obesity.

The findings are revealed in the annual Social Progress Index, which is published today by the Social Progress Imperative.

Michael Green, executive director of the US-based organisation, said: “Overall, within Europe, the UK’s ranking is middle of the road: it’s more socially advanced than the United States, Belgium, France, Ireland or Spain but loses out to all the Nordic countries, Canada and Australia.

“The UK is let down by its disappointing score on ‘health and wellness’ and like many rich countries, the UK’s lowest score is on ‘ecosystem sustainability’.”

Countries were assessed on their social and environmental performance using 52 indicators to calculate final rankings. Across those, the UK finished top or joint top in 18.

The UK’s most impressive result was in the section on citizens’ personal rights, coming second overall. Academics assessed factors including the extent of freedom of speech, political rights and freedom of assembly, with the UK scoring top on nearly every measure.

Another strong area was the access to advanced education available to Britons. The UK was ranked fourth in this category, helped by a large number of globally ranked universities.

In health and wellness, however, the UK came 27th. This “owes primarily” to figures showing that almost 25% of the population are obese, the report said. The UK ranked 111th globally for its obesity level, which is significantly higher than other European countries such as Italy (17.2% and France (15.6%).

The UK was also ranked 27th in the nutrition and basic medical care section. This was thanks in part to the fact that 28 people for every 100,000 die from infectious diseases each year – higher than countries such as Australia (13.7 per 100,000) and Italy (15.5 per 100,000), according to the report.

Overall, experts said the UK’s 11th placed ranking was broadly in line with its economic strength, with the 19th highest GDP per capita of the countries studied.

Last year ,the UK was rated 13th most socially advanced – although researchers said the two scores are not comparable because of changes to this year’s report.

Norway was the top performing country in the 2015 index, followed by by Sweden (2nd), Switzerland (3rd), Iceland (4th) and New Zealand (5th).

Academics calculated a global social progress score, as an average of country scores weighted by population. On this measure, the world as a whole scores 61 out of 100 on the Social Progress Index, equivalent to Cuba and Kazakhstan.

Globally, there was a strong performance in the nutrition and basic medical care and access to basic knowledge.

The world fares worst in the tolerance and inclusion, personal rights, access to advanced education, and ecosystem sustainability categories, the report said.

The Social Progress Imperative was set up to complement economic indicators to provide a “more holistic” understanding of countries’ overall performance.

Professor Michael E Porter, of Harvard Business School – who chairs the index’s advisory board, said: “Inclusive growth requires achieving both economic and social progress.

“A striking finding is that GDP is far from being the sole determinant of social progress.

“The pitfalls of focusing on GDP alone are evident in the findings of the 2015 Social Progress Index. Countries must invest in social progress, not just economic institutions, to create the proper foundation for economic growth.”