Where the Philippines ranks in quality of life

MANILA – The Philippines ranks 64th in the world in terms of social progress, a new report showed.

The Philippines, which ranks 102nd in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), has a social progress index score of 65.46 (medium low), putting it in 64th place worldwide.

The social progress index score is an average across three dimensions: basic human needs, opportunity, and foundations of wellbeing.

It considers 52 indicators, which include access to water, shelter, medical care, safety, knowledge, information, education, personal rights, and freedom.

The index includes 133 countries covering 94% of the world’s population, plus 28 countries with partial data, according to The Social Progress Imperative.

Among the three dimensions of the index, the Philippines is highest in ranking in opportunity (44th), with a score of 59.30. It is “strongest on personal freedom and choice and has the most room to improve on access to advanced education,” the report said.

In the basic human needs dimension, the Philippines ranks 83rd with a score of 68.23. It “performs best on nutrition and basic medical care and has most opportunity to improve on the personal safety component.”

In the foundations of well-being dimension, the Philippines ranks 70th with a score of 68.86. It “scores highest on access to basic knowledge but lags on the ecosystem sustainability component.”

According to the report, compared to other countries with similar GDP per capita, the Philippines “possesses a relative strength” on the following elements: homicide rate, traffic deaths, freedom of assembly/association, freedom over life choices, early marriage, tolerance for homosexuals, years of tertiary schooling, inequality in the attainment of education, and globally ranked universities.

However, it scores poorly in the following measures: level of violent crime, perceived criminality, political terror, press freedom index, premature deaths from non-communicable diseases, obesity rate, water withdrawals as a percentage of resources, tolerance for immigrants, and discrimination and violence against minorities.

The top three countries in the social progress index are Norway, Sweden and Switzerland with closely grouped scores between 88.36 and 87.97, the report said.

Norway ranks 1st on the foundations of well-being dimension with a score of 88.46 and 9th on basic human needs and opportunity. Sweden, which the report said registers a more balanced portfolio across the index, ranks 3rd on foundations of well-being (86.43), 5th on opportunity (82.93) and 8th on basic human needs (94.83). Switzerland, meanwhile, is 2nd on both basic human needs (95.66) and foundations of well-being.

Aside from Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, the top 16 include Iceland, New Zealand, Canada, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Britain, Ireland, Austria, Germany, Japan, and the United States. –ABS-CBNnews.com