Life is measured in more than numbers. What is it like to live in any particular country? Are citizens happy, healthy, well-housed and well-fed, well-educated, and safe? The numbers include data from multiple indexes measuring standing of the 12 democracies tracked by International Comparisons.

Nicholas Kristof: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness

Word doc: Kristof Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness

2026 Social Progress Index

Interesting videos

SOURCES:

Human Development Index 2025

The Human Development Index (HDI) was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. The HDI is a summary measure of average achievement in three key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions. Data confirmed 4/24/2026.

Better Life Index 2024

There does not appear to be an updated BLI ranking. The OECD has published a 2025 BLI, however, the indicators have changed.

There is more to life than the cold numbers of GDP and economic statistics – The Better Life Index allows you to compare well-being across countries, based on 11 topics the OECD has identified as essential, in the areas of material living conditions and quality of life. 9/5/2025.

World Happiness Report, 2025

In this issue of the World Happiness Report focuses on the happiness of people at different stages of life. In the seven ages of man in Shakespeare’s As You Like It, the later stages of life are portrayed as deeply depressing. But happiness research shows a more nuanced picture, and one that is changing over time. We encourage you to explore the 2025 report for the latest findings on the happiness of the world’s young, the old – and everyone in between. Data confirmed 4/24/2026.

Social Progress Index, 2026

“After a decade of growth, social progress has stagnated but there are many opportunities to accelerate progress.“

Its distinctive design focuses on the issues that matter most to people – such as improved health, safety, education, rights and opportunities. Policymakers, business leaders, investors, community groups and philanthropists in over 50 countries are using the Social Progress Index to frame and measure performance, facilitate collaboration and prioritize actions on the world’s most pressing issues. Data confirmed 4/24/2026.

Environmental Performance Index, 2024

The 2024 EPI provides a quantitative basis for comparing, analyzing, and understanding environmental performance for 180 countries. We score and rank these countries on their environmental performance using the most recent year of data available and calculate how these scores have changed over the previous decade. Data confirmed 9/5/2025.

Happy Planet Index, 2024

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) measures how well nations are doing at achieving sustainable wellbeing. In other words, how successful they are at supporting their inhabitants to live good lives now, while ensuring that others can do the same in the future. It is based on a simple idea: The ultimate outcome for societies should be sustainable wellbeing for all. And the fundamental input is environmental resources. If we want one single indicator to get an overall sense of how we are doing, that indicator should be a measure of how much wellbeing is achieved per unit of environmental resources, in effect a measure of socio-ecological efficiency. 9/5/2025.

Legatum Prosperity Index, 2023

The Legatum Prosperity Index™ is a tool for transformation, offering a unique insight into how prosperity is forming and changing across the world. This is the most up-to-date information available, the Legatum Prosperity Index 2025 has not yet been published. 9/5/2025.

Notes

The U.S. Is Lagging Behind Many Rich Countries. These Charts Show Why.

New York Times, Jul 2nd, 2020, David Leonhardt and Yaryna Serkez
Average income has increased world-wide. However, for residents of the US, these income gains have been seen mostly by the affluent, while middle-and lower-income workers have seen their share reduced. The US ranks lower than other advanced nations in membership in labor unions, which, for years, supported workers in the US. Research shows that labor union members are paid more, on average, than non-members in similar, non-union jobs.

There are many other factors contributing to the failure of the US to keep up with other advanced democracies, including health care; taxes; incarceration rates; lower minimum wage; and higher prices for everyday items like cell phones.

Building a Movement for Happiness

Truthout, May 15th, 2014, John de Graaf
Argues for using happiness and well-being as measures of progress and success. “Gallup…assess the happiness of 150 countries in the world each year. Consistently, northern European nations rank on top, with Denmark in the number one spot year after year. The United States, which ranked 11th in 2007, has dropped to 17th place since the great economic meltdown. Several factors in particular characterize the world’s happiest countries – a relatively small gap between rich and poor; excellent work-life balance; urban design favoring community over cars; high degrees of interpersonal trust; a strong social safety net, and, contrary to popularly-held US ideas, the highest tax rates in the world.”

U.S. work-life balance ranks poorly on Better Life Index

SFGate, Feb 26th, 2014, Kathryn Roethel
“The good news is poor work-life balance in the United States doesn’t seem to translate into poor quality of life overall. Americans were in the top half of the pack in the “life satisfaction” ranking, and the U.S. was No. 1 in after-tax household income.”

World Wildlife Fund: Living Planet Report 2022

World Wildlife Fund International states that there must be a balance between meeting needs for society’s existence and stewardship for better sustainability for tomorrow’s world. It prescribes that countries aim for a Human Development Index score (today’s needs) of at least .800 and an ecological footprint (sustainability) of less than 1.8 global hectares per person.

A Comparison of the U.S. to the Other Rich Nations

Michael Wolff & Company, Inc., Wolff et al.
Where We Stand, Bantam Books, 1992. Interesting, comprehensive, and now out-of-date. They used indicators for productivity, salaries, equitable wealth distribution, luxury-goods consumption, trading strength, poverty, personal and national indebtedness, inflation control, business strength and credit-worthiness. International Comparisons note: we include this as an historical reference.

OECD Better Life Index

In 2013, OECD published the original Better Life Index, with these rankings: Australia-1, Sweden-2, Canada-3, Norway-4, United States-6, Denmark-7, Netherlands-8, United Kingdom-10, Germany-17, France-18, Japan-21, Italy-23. The current Better Life Index is a table with 18 columns of social and economic indicators, allowing users to create their own index. “Life Satisfaction” is one of the indicators, but it is a single indicator, not a combination of multiple indicators.