Phl moves up in social progress index

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has been ranked 56th out of 132 countries in the Social Progress Index 2014 released yesterday.

The Philippines ranking improved from an SPI score of 49.41 in 2013 to 65.86 in 2014.

The Social Progress Index ranks counties by their social and environmental performance.

The Philippines’ good performance placed it ahead of Thailand (59) and Indonesia (88) despite having a much smaller gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the survey said.

It is also ahead economic powerhouses like Russia (80), China (90) and India (102) in the overall rankings.

For the first time, each country’s performance was also compared to 15 other countries with a similar level of economic development (based on GDP per capita).

The Philippines’ economic peers (similar GDP per capita) in the SPI are the Republic of Congo, Iraq, Honduras, Nicaragua, India, Indonesia, Guatemala, Uzbekistan, Swaziland, Bolivia, Morocco, Moldova, Guyana, Mongolia and Laos.

The Philippines managed to outperform all 15 of them to have the best SPI performance in this sub-group, the report said.

Compared to this peer group of 15 countries, the Philippines has performed strongly on the underlying measures of opportunity, doing well in areas of access to advanced education and personal freedom and choice. –Helen M. Flores (The Philippine Star)