Opinion | 'We're No. 28! And Dropping!' - The New York Times - 1 views
www.nytimes.com/...ed-states-social-progress.html
quality of life development goal metric history culture policy pandemic
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The newest Social Progress Index, shared with me before its official release Thursday morning, finds that out of 163 countries assessed worldwide, the United States, Brazil and Hungary are the only ones in which people are worse off than when the index began in 2011. And the declines in Brazil and Hungary were smaller than America’s.
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The index, inspired by research of Nobel-winning economists, collects 50 metrics of well-being — nutrition, safety, freedom, the environment, health, education and more — to measure quality of life.
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The United States, despite its immense wealth, military power and cultural influence, ranks 28th — having slipped from 19th in 2011.
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The index now puts the United States behind significantly poorer countries, including Estonia, Czech Republic, Cyprus and Greece
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The United States ranks No. 1 in the world in quality of universities, but No. 91 in access to quality basic education
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The Social Progress Index finds that Americans have health statistics similar to those of people in Chile, Jordan and Albania,
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kids in the United States get an education roughly on par with what children get in Uzbekistan and Mongolia
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A majority of countries have lower homicide rates, and most other advanced countries have lower traffic fatality rates and better sanitation and internet access.
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The United States has high levels of early marriage — most states still allow child marriage in some circumstances — and lags in sharing political power equally among all citizens
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the coronavirus will affect health, longevity and education, with the impact particularly large in both the United States and Brazil.
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“Societies that are inclusive, tolerant and better educated are better able to manage the pandemic,”
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The decline of the United States over the last decade in this index — more than any country in the world — is a reminder that we Americans face structural problems that predate President Trump
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the share of Americans reporting in effect that every day is a bad mental health day has doubled over 25 years. “Rising distress and despair are largely American phenomenon not observed in other advanced countries,”