Portugal ranks 21st in the 2020 Social Progress Index, representing a drop of 3 positions compared to the previous year. Portugal fell by 0,22 points in absolute terms in the index, showing a worse performance in the "Inclusion" indicators, namely in "Inequality of political power by social group" and in "Discrimination and violence against minorities".
Norway maintains its top spot and leads the 2020 ranking with a consistently strong performance across all components. It is immediately ahead of Denmark and Finland, which complete the top three. New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Iceland, and the Netherlands make up the top ten, with the biggest change stemming from New Zealand's rise, largely due to Iceland's fall, which worsened significantly in terms of Inclusion.
According to the study, Portugal performs highly globally in the categories of Environmental Quality (5th) and Personal Rights (9th), but shows lower performance in Access to Basic Education (59th) and Access to Higher Education (41st), the least positive relative positions in the entire ranking.
The country is preceded in the ranking by countries such as France, Spain and the United Kingdom and is immediately ahead of Slovenia. Among the countries that are below Portugal in this ranking are Italy, Estonia, the United States (28th), Singapore (29th) and Israel (33rd).
“Despite the negative evolution in the global ranking in 2020, Portugal continues to show a more favorable overall position in terms of social progress than that resulting from its GDP per capita, according to which it occupies the 36th position among the 163 countries analyzed. This data demonstrates that the parallelism between social progress and wealth creation does not necessarily go hand in hand,” explains Carlos Cruz, Partner at Deloitte.
Social Progress Index 2020
The 2020 Social Progress Index is supported by Deloitte and developed by the Social Progress Imperative, a US non-profit organization. It ranks the social performance of 163 countries over seven years (2014-2020), analyzing 50 indicators related to, among other areas, Nutrition, Housing, Security, Education, Health, as well as Human Rights and Inclusion.
The study compares, for the first time, the social progress performance of 163 countries over ten years, helping to map trends. Overall, the world has improved in general terms in social progress, rising from 60,63 to 64,24 since 2011. However, progress has been uneven.
The analysis shows that the greatest progress was achieved in "Access to Information and Communication" (70,33), which increased by 21,61 points in the last ten years, thus standing out from the other indicators. Increases in "Internet Access" and "Mobile Phone Subscriptions," particularly in developing countries, played a decisive role.
In the indicators of "Personal Safety" and "Environmental Quality," global progress has stagnated drastically, with gains in some countries offset by declines in others. On the negative side, since 2011, the world has witnessed a worrying decline in the indicators of "Individual Rights," falling from 66,51 to 60,09 points, and in the indicators of "Inclusion," falling from 42,73 to 39,25, including the United States of America (-5,49 and -7,59, respectively).
