Canada Ranked World’s 6th Most Socially-Advanced Country

First Published Date: April 19, 2015

The Social Progress Index, an index that was developed by team lead Harvard professor Michael Porter, measures social progress by taking a more holistic understanding approach and complementing traditional measures such as GDP and other indicators. There are 52 elements, from crime to literacy rates and gender equality to accessing information that are tracked by the Social Progress Index.

Here are the top ten countries on the 2015 Social Progress Index out of 133 countries:

1. Norway

2. Sweden

3. Switzerland

4. Iceland

5. New Zealand

6. Canada

7. Finland

8. Denmark

9. Netherlands

10. Australia

Here are some global highlights:

– Canada is the top ranking G7 country and the only G7 country to show high progress.

– Canada gets a high score for tolerance of religious minorities and immigrants and access to advanced education, but gets a low score on access to information and communications, obesity, and protecting the environment.

– Sweden is the top performing country in the EU.

– Costa Rica is the world’s best over-performing country.

– Brazil is the top BRICS performing country. After Brazil comes South Africa, Russia, China and India.

– US is ranked #16, although it has the world’s highest per capita GDP.

– Zimbabwe is 133rd and the worst country on the list.