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Social Well-Being

Democratization

Democracy, or the ability of citizens to choose (directly or indirectly) their own leaders, has been correlated with improvements in human rights 1, economic growth 2, peace 3, and general well-being 4, 5. Democracy in the world has generally been growing, but has been in decline since 2007.

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Not all years in 'Freedom in the World' reports are calendar years; the nearest calendar year was used for all years except 1981-82. It should be acknowledged that the source, Freedom House, receives funding from the U. S. Federal Government, and the figures have some controversy. The Polity Project 6 and the Democracy Index 7 provide similar data, with somewhat different values. Source: Freedom House 8.

Freedom of the Press

Worldwide, freedom of the press has improved over the last several decades. However, as of 2016, the last year for which Freedom House assessed the topic, progress in freedom of the press seems to have stalled.

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Source: Freedom House 9.

Fifty journalists were killed in the line of duty in 2020, the smallest number in the past decade 10.

Economic Freedom

Economic freedom is generally defined as the ability engage in economic activity with limited interference. Economic freedom in the world has generally increased over time, and wealthier countries show more economic freedom than poorer countries.

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Source: Index of Economic Freedom 11.

The Index of Economic Freedom, prepared by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, measures economic freedom in highly libertarian terms, as does the Cato Institute's and Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of the World 12. The Ease of Doing Business metric 13 focuses more narrowly on business freedom, while the Global Competitiveness Report 14 uses a broader measure of economic freedom, including health, institutional strength, and other factors. These metrics differ for some specific countries but are highly correlated.

Equality

Equality, which can be measured in several different days, is the extent to which people are generally at the same level, by wealth or income, within a society. Higher levels of equality tend to be associated with higher economic growth 15, poverty reduction 15, social trust 16, and reduced status anxiety 16. Recent technological advances, the weakness of labor institutions, and to a lesser extent financial globalization, are drivers of inequality 15. Wealthier countries are generally more equal than poorer countries, though the United States is an outlier in being both wealthy and having a high level of inequality. Inequality for select countries is as follows.

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The Gini coefficient is a measure of inequality. A coefficient of zero means that a region is perfectly equal, while if a single person owns everything, then the coefficient is one. See the Investopedia article 17 for technical details on the Gini coefficient. Source: World Bank 18.

Within countries, inequality has been generally flat since 2000, increasing in wealthy countries and decreasing in poorer countries 19. For the world as a whole, inequality increased from 1800 to 1975, as industrializing countries moved ahead in wealth, and has decreased since 1975 as poorer countries catch up with higher growth 20.

Gender equality in the world is showing signs of improvement, but the rates of child marriage and female genital mutilation, for instance, remain alarmingly high.

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Source: UNICEF 21.

Education

The number of children out of school in the world has been falling since 1998, but in the last decade, progress in education is starting to stagnate.

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Source: UNICEF 21.

References

  1. Saha, S., Zhang, Z. "Democracy-growth nexus and its interaction effect on human development: A cross-national analysis". Economic Modelling 63, pp. 304-310. June 2017. ↩

  2. Malikane, C., Chitambara, P. "Foreign Direct Investment, Democracy and Economic Growth in Southern Africa". African Development Review 29(1), pp. 92-102. March 2017. ↩

  3. Hegre, H. "Democracy and armed conflict". Journal of Peace Research 51(2), pp. 15-172. March 2014. ↩

  4. Loubser, R., Steenekamp, C.,. "Democracy, well‐being, and happiness: A 10‐nation study". Journal of Public Affairs 17(1-2), e1646. February 2017. ↩

  5. Touchton, M., Sugiyama, N., Wampler, B. "Democracy at Work: Moving Beyond Elections to Improve Well-Being". American Political Science Review. 2017. ↩

  6. Center for Systemic Peace. "The Polity Project". Accessed January 9, 2020. ↩

  7. The Economist. "Democracy Index 2019". The Economist Intelligence Unit. Accessed January 9, 2020. ↩

  8. Freedom House. "Freedom in the World 2020: A Leaderless Struggle for Democracy". 2020. ↩

  9. Freedom House. "Press Freedom's Dark Horizon". 2017. ↩

  10. Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders). "RSF’s 2020 Round-up: 50 journalists killed, two-thirds in countries "at peace"". December 2020. ↩

  11. Miller, T., Kim, A., Roberts, J., Tyrrell, P. "2020 Index of Economic Freedom". The Heritage Foundation, Wall Street Journal. 2020. ↩

  12. Cato Institute, Fraser Institute. "Economic Freedom of the World". Accessed January 10, 2020. ↩

  13. The World Bank. "Doing Business 2020". Accessed January 10, 2020. ↩

  14. Schwab, K. "The Global Competitiveness Report 2019". World Economic Forum. 2019. ↩

  15. Dabla-Norris, E., Kochhar, K., Suphaphiphat, N., Ricka, F., Tsounta, E. "Causes and Consequences of Income Inequality: A Global Perspective". International Monetary Fund. June 2015. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  16. Buttrick, N., Oishi, S. "The psychological consequences of income inequality". Social and Personality Psychology Compass 11(3): e12304. March 2017. ↩ ↩2

  17. Westfall, P. "Gini Index". Investopedia. February 2020. ↩

  18. The World Bank. "Gini index". Accessed January 11, 2021. ↩

  19. Hasell, J. "Empirical evidence on long-term global trends in income inequality". Our World In Data, Oxford Martin Programme on Global Development. 2018. ↩

  20. Roser, M., Ortiz-Ospina, E. "Income Inequality". Our World in Data. October 2016. ↩

  21. UNICEF. "A new era for girls: Taking stock of 25 years of progress". The United Nations. March 2020. ↩ ↩2