"Rather than emphasizing traditional measurements of success like income and investment, we measure 51 social and environmental indicators to create a clearer picture of what life is really like for everyday people. The index doesn’t measure people’s happiness or life satisfaction, focusing instead on actual life outcomes in areas from shelter and nutrition to rights and education," say explanatory notes.
The rankings were released September 18 and cover 149 countries, with Norway taking top spot.
Latvia is in the top quarter, lying in 36th place. It does even better than that in a few categories, most notably Opportunity (29th place) and Personal Freedom and Choice (26th place) but fares worse in Health and Wellness (59th place) and Shelter (54th place).
However, the ranking is lower than fellow Baltic states Estonia (25th place) and Lithuania (32nd place).
You can explore the data yourself in the interactive graphic below and by visiting the Social Progress Imperative website.
