Romania surpassed by all EU member states in global Social Progress Index

Romania ranks 44th in the international ranking 2018 Social Progress Index, conducted by the Social Progress Imperative nonprofit organization with the support of Deloitte. Although it went up from the 51st place in 2014, Romania was surpassed by all EU member states in this year’s edition of the ranking. The Social Progress Index survey (SPI) measures people’s quality of life and the well-being of society from 146 countries, analyzing three dimensions using indicators covering basic human needs (nutrition and basic medical care, water and sanitation, shelter, personal safety), foundations of well-being (access to basic education, access to communications and information, health and well-being, environmental quality) and opportunity (personal rights, personal freedom and choice, inclusiveness, access to advanced education). The scores registered for each indicator analyzed by SPI are compared to the ones of 15 other states registering a similar GDP per capita (including Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Greece, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkey or Iran). According to the scores, Romania performs weaker than the 15 states with a GDP per capita similar on the following chapters: water and sanitation, access to quality medical care, access to advanced education, life expectancy of people over 60 or social inclusion. “Romania’s lower scores show where the deficiencies are in the distribution of the economic growth and the public spending. In conclusion, this report points out the indicators that need an improvement as far as the quality of life in Romania in concerned. The decision makers can use it as a public policy tool to set up a long-term strategy,” said Vlad Boeriu, partner Deloitte Romania. This year, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland are the world’s best performers, while Afghanistan, Chad and the Central African Republic are on the last places. Among the Central and Eastern European countries, Slovenia (22) had the best performance, followed by the Czech Republic (26), Estonia (27), Lithuania (31), Poland (32), Slovakia (35), Hungary (36), Croatia (37), Latvia (39), Bulgaria (40) and Romania (44). Detailed results for Romania can be seen here. Romania, last in EU according to World Bank’s Human Capital Index Irina Marica, irina.marica@romania-insider.com