The Social Progress of Nations Revisited, 1970–2020: 50 Years of Development Challenges and Accomplishments

Abstract

Social progress and well-being throughout the world have arrived at a critical turning point. Following decades of social losses among the world’s poorest developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the majority of these and other nations now are experiencing significant social gains. Using the author’s well-established Weighted Index of Social Progress from 1970 to 2018 (WISP2018), the author traces the net social gains and social losses experienced by the vast majority of the world’s nations over a 50-year time period, ranging from 1970 to the present. The data reported draw on the author’s extensive database of historical and contemporary social indicators and link the current study to his and other reports of social progress and well-being that have been published during this time period. Data are reported at four levels of analysis, i.e., that of the world as a whole, that of the regions (continents) of the world, the world’s 19 subregions using the preceding, and, finally, that of selected countries for which the changes have been most remarkable. The net social gains on the WISP18 and earlier versions of the WISP portray very positive outcomes for the 162 countries included in the study (representing 95 percent of the world’s total population) for both the near and long terms.