Slowly but surely, Peru is inching forward in terms of social performance, as revealed by its 1.38-points rise in the 2017 Social Progress Index measuring social development across the globe.
Released Wednesday, the
aggregate index gives the Inca country 72.15 points, a small but nonetheless positive change from the 70.77 recorded in Peru's first reading in 2014.
With this score, Peru ranks 47th out of the 128 countries studied, which account for 98% of the world's population.
Foundations of Wellbeing
The Social Progress Index captures
three dimensions of social progress: Basic Human Needs, Opportunity and Foundations of Wellbeing, the latter of which gives Peru its best results.
The Andean nation's Foundations of Wellbeing score stands at 81.55 points (34th spot). In this sense, Peru's best performance is in terms of
Health and Wellness, outperforming fellow Latin countries Chile, Colombia and Mexico with 80.78 points (15th).
Such result owes mainly to improvements made in health services and particularly regarding premature deaths from non-communicable diseases, in which Peru is second only to Switzerland.
Peru has also made progress with respect to Environmental Quality, ranking 36th with 75.5 points. Said figures are underpinned by relatively low greenhouse gas emissions, at 269.64 (CO2 equivalents per GDP).
Peru's results were presented by Centrum Catolica Graduate Business School and Social Progress Imperative, the U.S.-based nonprofit in charge of the Social Progress Index.
The information was provided as a contribution for the Peruvian State to take its own pulse, define long-term social progress goals and needs, as well as apply it for decision-making.
Social Progress Index
The Social Progress Index is the first holistic measure of a country's social performance that is independent of economic factors.
Focusing instead on final results for populations, the index is regarded as the only tool seeking to explain life quality progress in each of the 128 countries assessed.
(END) CNA/JJN/DHT/MVB