New Social Progress Index Report; Slow Progress of Iran Over Three Decades

The Economist magazine has reported on the growth of citizens in countries based on data from the Social Progress Imperative organization. In a report published on Wednesday, May 24, it ranked 170 countries based on the level of welfare they provide to their citizens using criteria other than wealth. The Social Progress Imperative completely avoids Gross Domestic Product in its Social Progress Index (SPI). Instead, it examines 52 other indicators categorized into three classes: basic human needs (such as food and water), long-term development (education and healthcare), and opportunity (including individual rights and freedoms). Iran ranked 93rd in the overall ranking of this data. In a separate analysis, the differences in countries' scores on the Social Progress Index between 1990 and 2020 were examined, noting that Iran's score increased from 51 to 68. The data results indicate that progress in human welfare has generally slowed down, and in some regions, such as Latin America, it has stagnated. Meanwhile, the region that has experienced the most significant increase in welfare is East Asia and the Pacific. Steve Hanke, a prominent American economist and professor of economics at Johns Hopkins University, also categorized Iran among the '20 most miserable countries' in the world in his latest report on the misery index among countries. He explained that he updated the formula for the misery index and emphasized the role of unemployment in the calculations. The United States Institute of Peace also examined Iran's economic conditions in December 2022, stating that the failure to revive the nuclear agreement, improper implementation of essential goods subsidy reforms, and unrealistic budgeting have reduced national GDP growth, with protests following the death of Mahsa Amini exacerbating this trend. The results published by the Social Progress Imperative also indicate that countries that have made significant progress in some areas, such as meeting basic needs, do not provide their citizens with adequate support in other indicators, such as individual freedoms. These results still highlight the link between wealth and welfare, as the wealthiest countries are often those where citizens have thrived, while conditions in the poorest countries have been the worst. In this context, the EkoIran website reported that 11 million people have been added to the population below the poverty line in Iran. According to a report from the Research Center of the Parliament, with the growth of the population at risk of poverty in recent years, 'one-third of the population is below the poverty line,' and the middle class is also not far from becoming impoverished. The statistics from this center indicated that the poverty threshold for a family of four last September was 7 million and 500 thousand tomans. The burden of inflation on rural households in Ordibehesht showed a point inflation rate of 60 percent and food inflation of 77 percent. A newspaper criticized the wage levels again, stating that they want to lead society towards unlimited misery. Steve Hanke's report on the misery index in 2022 placed Iran on the list of 20 miserable countries in the world, with a record-breaking '69 percent inflation' in Farvardin, pushing another 11 million people 'below the poverty line.'