The 2017 Social Progress Index, published by the Social Progress Imperative, regional partner of the INCAE Sustainable Development (CLACDS) ranks Costa Rica in position 28 of 128.

This year´s index shows that global leaders are facing two worrisome tendencies: a decline in personal rights, personal security, tolerance and inclusion and a slow and uneven progress globally.

¨At the Social Progress Imperative, we define social progress as the capacity of a society to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, establish the building blocks that allow citizens and communities to enhance and sustain the quality of their lives, and create the conditions for all individuals to reach their full potential. Improving quality of life is a complex and multilayered endeavor, and past efforts to measure progress simply haven’t created a sufficiently nuanced picture of what a healthy society looks like¨ states the Social Progress Report.

The index measures 50 indicators of social en environmental outcomes to create a clearer picture of what life is really like for everyday people. It captures three dimensions of social progress: Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing and Opportunity.

In the overall results it was Denmark that ranked the highest, obtaining a 90.57 and followed closely by Finland with a score of 90.53; Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, Australia and New Zealand complete the top 10 and are part of the 14 countries with ¨Very High Social Progress¨.

In the other end of the scope the worse ranked was Central African Republic with a score of 28.38, Afghanistan is second to worse with 35.66.

Costa Rica managed a score of 81.03 which ranks the country among those with ¨high social progress¨, the United States is in this same category but with a score of 86.43 and it sits in position 18; Chile, Uruguay and Argentina are the other three countries in the Americas in this group with positions 25, 31 and 38 and a score of 82.54, 80.09 and 75.90 respectively, making Costa Rica the fourth best ranked in America.

About this the index states: ¨Four G7 countries with significant wealth (USA, Japan, France and Italy) achieve only the second tier of High Social Progress; two middle-income countries achieve the same level of social progress (Argentina and Costa Rica)¨.

¨Three of the four Latin American countries in this tier are among the top performing countries in the world relative to their income. Chile (82.54, 25th), Costa Rica (81.03, 28th), and Uruguay (80.09, 31st) strongly outperform their peer countries in Personal Rights, Personal Freedom and Choice, and Tolerance and Inclusion. The region’s consistent efforts to build democratic institutions over the last three decades, as well as strong civic movements championing social and environmental causes, has enabled these Latin American countries to perform particularly well relative to their global economic peers. The fourth Latin American country, Argentina, outperforms its peer countries in the areas of Tolerance and Inclusion and Access to Information and Communications. It underperforms in Shelter and Personal Safety¨

The United States has experienced declines in Tolerance and Inclusion due to decreasing religious tolerance and increasing discrimination against minorities.

Panama, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay ,Dominican Republic and Bolivia are part of the Upper Middle Social Progress group.

El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras all are considered among the countries with Lower Middle Social Progress.

According to the information provided in the index, ¨progress on social issues does not automatically accompany economic development. Rising income usually brings major improvements in access to clean water, sanitation, literacy and basic education. But on average, personal security is no better in middle income countries than low income ones, and is often worse. Too many people –regardless of income-, live without full rights and experience discrimination or even violence based on gender, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation.