Study on quality of life and social wellbeing: stagnation becomes a global trend, and one‑third of countries decline. Romania maintains its position in the ranking
Romania remains on the 45th place in the Social Progress Index global ranking, which assesses the quality of life and social wellbeing in 171 countries and is conducted by the non-profit organization Social Progress Imperative with the support of Deloitte. Our country's overall score was 74.49 out of 100, similar to 2024 (74.61), a result which, although is below the rest of the EU states, keeps us among the countries in the second category, which we entered in 2022. The latest report shows that social progress stagnation is a global phenomenon, impacting almost every region of the world, and nearly a third of the countries declined last year.
Romania improves its position in the world ranking in the basic needs category - 45th place, compared to 49th in 2024, remains 45th in terms of opportunities and decreases in the wellbeing category - 63rd place, compared to 61st previously. Analyzing the indicators included under these three chapters, our country obtained the best results in nutrition and medical care (36th place in the world, compared to 41st in the previous year) and housing (36th place, compared to 43rd). Improvements were also recorded in water and sanitation (58th place, compared to 72nd). On the other hand, the lowest scores were recorded in health and basic education (86th place in both categories), chapters that reveal a gap between Romania and countries with similar GDP/capita (peer countries), including Hungary, Poland, Croatia or Greece, according to the report.
The evolution of GDP and the Social Progress Index are not in a deterministic relationship, but some countries are better than others at turning their economic development into social progress. For example, Demark and the US have similar GDP per capita, but US’s social progress is nearly 10 points lower (91,16 vs 81,76). Also, the US has social progress results comparable to Latvia, despite Latvia’s GDP per capita being half of the US’s.
“One of the trends highlighted by the report is the increasingly weaker relationship between economic performance and social progress in recent years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. This evolution is also visible in Romania, an economy that has recorded one of the fastest growth rates in the European Union, but which continues to face challenges in areas such as education, health system or reduction of regional inequalities. In order to have an economic growth with positive effects on citizens’ level of well-being, our country needs measures to ensure not only that the growth rate of public and private investments (with foreign and local capital) is maintained, but also that they are strategically directed towards social infrastructure and certain geographical regions and industries,” stated Alexandru Reff, Country Managing Partner, Deloitte Romania and Moldova.
Northern countries continue to lead the world rankings
Norway remains the leader of the ranking in 2025, with a score of 91.73 (compared to 91.95 in the previous year), closely followed by Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Switzerland, all with scores above 90, but stagnating or decreasing.
Since 2011, the greatest improvements have been recorded in information and communications category, as well as housing, advanced education and water and sanitation, while the countries with the highest increases in social progress were Fiji, Saudi Arabia and Moldova.
The G7 group of strong economies has performed diversely in terms of social progress since 2011. While Germany and Japan lead the group, Italy saw strong social progress growth from 2015 to 2022 but has stalled since 2023. The UK and France have stagnated in social progress since 2011, and the US has declined to last place in the G7. Canada showed significant improvement but declined recently.
The UK economy has recovered from the downturn triggered by COVID-19. However, its social progress has fallen five places in the ranks since 2011, to 18th in 2025.
Europe registers an overall score of 79.18 points, a slight increase compared to the previous year (79.13), which places it second in the top of regions, after North America (82.1 and 81.74 respectively). Compared to 2011, Europe has seen the greatest improvement in air quality, although the global progress in this area remains slow, despite a short-lived improvement during COVID-19.
Among the most important emerging economies, with populations over 100 million, Brazil remains the top performer, thanks in part to its recovery in the last 2-3 years. The most consistent social progress performers since 2011 have been Indonesia, Bangladesh and Nigeria. Ethiopia has experienced the most significant slowdown, since 2020. Pakistan and Russia are also declining, Russia’s decline following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Social progress gains in the world’s most populous countries have slowed. After years of steady growth, improvement in India and China has slowed since 2021.
Social progress is defined as the ability of a state to ensure the basic needs of its citizens and facilitate an increase in the quality of life, while creating conditions for individuals to develop and reach their potential.
The Social Progress Index report is published annually, since 2011, by the Social Progress Imperative, and calculates the Social Progress Index based on the analysis of three main dimensions: basic needs (nutrition and medical care, water and sanitation, housing and safety), foundations of wellbeing (basic education, information and communications, health, environmental quality), and respectively opportunity (rights and voice, freedom and choice, inclusion and advanced education).
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