2022 Social Progress Index: Romania is no longer last among EU countries

Romania has climbed one place and ranks 43rd in the 2022 edition of the Social Progress Index compiled by non-profit organization Social Progress Imperative with the support of Deloitte. This means that, although the advance is not that significant, Romania is no longer last among the EU member states. It's now second to last in the ranking, ahead of Bulgaria (44th).

The Social Progress Index (SPI) measures the quality of life and social wellbeing of citizens from 169 countries along three main dimensions: basic human needs (nutrition and basic medical care, water and sanitation, shelter and personal safety), wellbeing (access to basic knowledge, access to information and communications, health and wellness, environmental quality), and opportunities (personal rights, personal freedom and choice, inclusiveness, access to advanced education). Based on the score, the countries in the ranking are grouped into six categories arranged in descending order.

Romania scored 76.89 points out of 100 in the 2022 index, slightly lower than last year. This places it in the ranking's second tier (up from the third-tier category previously) after Barbados, Argentina, and Hungary.

Looking at the three analyzed categories, Romania registered a slight progress in the global ranking for basic human needs (40th place), climbing one position from last year's index, and a slight regression, losing one position, in terms of opportunities (46th place) and wellbeing (51st place).

Romania obtained the best scores on nutrition and basic medical care and shelter (34th place both), followed by personal safety (35th), access to information and communications (36th), and advanced education (44th). On the other hand, it got lower scores on health and wellness (81st place), water and sanitation (70th), and access to basic knowledge (65th).

"Amid a legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges from climate change, economic and political turbulence, the world showed signs of improvement in terms of social progress, even though by only 0.37 points compared to last year but the study draws attention to a possible regression next year for the first time. Romania's progress is also quite slow, and I believe we could accelerate by leveraging strengths such as geography and natural resources, competitive labor force, technical skills and data infrastructure, growth-oriented taxation and abundant EU financing, provided we enhance investments in education, health, physical infrastructure and research and development," said Alexandru Reff, Country Managing Partner, Deloitte Romania and Moldova.

In 2022, Norway, Denmark and Finland occupy the first positions in the ranking, while Chad, the Central African Republic and South Sudan are at the opposite end. All EU member states are in the first two tiers, with Denmark (2nd), Finland (3rd), and Sweden (6th) among the first countries in the ranking, with a good quality of life.