SL ranked 88 in Social Progress Index

10 April 2015 09:27 am

Sri Lanka was ranked 88 out of 133 countries in the Social Progress Index conducted by the US-based Social Progress Imperative Organisation, ahead of the neighbouring countries including India and Pakistan.

Sri Lanka ranked at 75 in the Basic Human Needs sub category, 81 at the Foundations of Wellbeing and 95 at the Opportunity sub category.

“Sri Lanka performs best on Nutrition and Basic Medical Care and has the most opportunity to improve on the Personal Safety component. The island scores highest on Access to Basic Knowledge but lags behind on the Ecosystem Sustainability component. In the Opportunity Dimension, Sri Lanka is strongest on Personal Freedom and Choice and has the most room to improve on Personal Rights,” the index stated.

India is ranked 101 among the 133 countries while Pakistan ranked 122, Afghanistan at the bottom of 133, Bangladesh at 100 and Nepal at 98. Bhutan and Maldives have not been ranked. Norway, Sweden and Switzerland occupied the top three places respectively.

According to the News Kerala, The Social Progress Imperative is a US-based non-profit organisation set up in 2012 and the index is seen as a measure of relationship between income inequality and social progress by using the commonly deployed Gini coefficient on income inequality.