ArmInfo.Armenia took 50th place in the Social Progress Index 2024, which compares the level of availability of various social benefits in 170 countries.
The study is conducted annually by the American non-governmental organization Social Progress Imperative with the support of one of the world's largest auditors, Deloitte.
The index shows how well the social system of a particular state meets the needs of its residents. They are divided into three large groups:
- Basic needs (nutrition and medical care ;water and sanitation, housing, safety);
- Foundations of wellbeing (Basic education;information and communications, health; environmental quality);
- Opportunity ( rights and voice; l freedom and choice; inclusive society; advanced education).
"The 2024 Social Progress Index uses its 12 components and 57 indicators to measure the social performance of 170 countries fully and an additional 26 countries partially. This insight helps us understand how people across the world are living, who is being left behind and how to accelerate progress," the source notes.
Denmark became the leader in the Social Progress Index 2024. The TOP-3 also includes Norway and Finland. It is noteworthy that Georgia took 52nd place, Ukraine - 59th, Belarus - 61st, Russia - 76th. Azerbaijan took 99th place. The last places were taken by Chad, Central African Republic and South Sudan.
Armenia's strengths are considered to be the availability of basic health and drinking water and high sanitary standards. Respect for citizens' rights was found to be at an average level, while political rights were slightly higher. The weak points were environmental problems, the level of education, the information sector, including e-government and freedom of information.
"ccording to the 2024 Social Progress Index, for the first time the world has declined overall in social progress. In total, 61 countries saw a significant decline in their social progress in 2023 and 77 more stagnated. Only 32 countries saw any real progress. Today, four out of five people in the world live in a country where social progress is stagnating or declining," the researchers noted.