Th
European Union Regional Social Progress Indexis a tool developed by th
European Commission-Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policyin cooperation with th
Social Progress Imperativean
Orkestra Basque Institute of Competitivenessto measure the social progress in the 272 regions of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
. The European Union Regional Social Progress Index is based on the framework of th
Global Social Progress Index developed by th
Social Progress Imperative(non-profit), but adapts both its methodology and indicators' set to the European Union context.
The definitive version was released in October 2016. A first draft was released in February 2016. As the main index, computed for more than 130 countries in the world, the EU Regional Social Progress Index (EU-SPI) is a tool to complement existing welfare indices (such as
GDP per capita
Lists of countries by GDP per capita list the countries in the world by their gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. The lists may be based on nominal or purchasing power parity GDP. Gross national income (GNI) per capita accounts for inflows ...
or
HDI
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, wh ...
), evaluating how effectively the economic success of a country is transformed into social progress.
The EU-SPI unit of analysis are the 272
NUTS 2 Regions of the European Union. To do so, it uses 50 indicators (the main data sources are
Eurostat
Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide statis ...
and the
EU-SILC
The European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions, (also known as ''European Union Survey on Income and Living Conditions'') abbreviated EU-SILC, is a survey department of the EU.
It replaced in 2004 the ''European Community Househol ...
). Those 50 indicators are divided in three main dimensions:
* Basic Human Needs
* Foundations of Wellbeing
* Opportunity
Each dimension is divided in four components, which at the time contain from three to seven indicators.
When the index was released, it showed a great contrast between how regions performed if we use the GDP per capita as a measure of well-being, and how they perform if we use the EU-SPI. Some regions, as the capital region of Belgium (Région de Bruxelles-Capitale), which has a large GDP per capita performed poorly in the EU-SPI (you can find other examples, mainly in capital regions and many regions in Italy and Spain)
The publication of the Index had a notable media impact, including articles in the BBC, The ''
Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
'' or ''
El País
''El País'' (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. ''El País'' is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA.
It is the second most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . ''El Pa ...
''
References
{{reflist
Demographics indicators