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Methodology
Social progress is “society's ability to meet basic human needs, establish the structures that ensure quality of life for citizens and provide opportunities for all individuals to reach their full potential“. Based on this concept, the Social Progress Index (SPI) is formulated based on four main principles.
SPI Principles
- Exclusively social and environmental indicators: the objective of SPI is to measure social and environmental progress directly, without including economic indicators.
- Focus on results: SPI should measure the results that are important to people's lives (outcomes), not the investments or efforts made (inputs).
- Guidance for public policies and private social investments: SPI is used as a practical tool to help public officials, business leaders and civil society in the planning, implementation and evaluation of public policies and programs that accelerate social progress.
- Relevance: the aim of SPI is to measure social and environmental progress in a holistic and broad way, encompassing all geographical regions such as countries, states, municipalities and even districts and communities within municipalities.
Dimensions
SPI is divided into three dimensions, each of which is divided into four components. The dimensions covered by SPI are:
- Human Needs Is a country, state or municipality able to guarantee the most basic human needs for its population?
- Foundations of Wellbeing - Are there vital elements that guarantee people and communities the chance to provide and maintain their wellbeing?
- Opportunities - Are there opportunities in society for all individuals to reach their full potential?
The first dimension, Basic Needs, measures whether a country and/or region is able to provide for the essential needs of its population. This dimension measures whether people have enough to eat, whether they are receiving basic medical care, whether they have access to drinking water, whether they have adequate access to housing with basic services and whether they are safe and secure.
The second dimension, Fundamentals of Wellbeing, measures whether a population has access to quality basic education and communication and whether they are able to live with health, wellbeing and quality of life. This dimension also assesses whether society manages to live in an environmentally sustainable way and whether it guarantees the existence of natural resources (forest, water) for future generations.
The third dimension, Opportunity, measures the degree to which a society is free from restrictions on its own rights and its individuals are able to make their own decisions, and whether there are prejudices and hostilities that prevent individuals from reaching their full potential.
Components
The SPI structure has three dimensions and 12 components. Each component has three to six indicators, which must answer the guiding questions:
Human Needs
Nutrition & Medical Care
Do people have enough food to eat and are they receiving basic medical care?
Water & Sanitation
Can people drink water and keep themselves clean without getting sick?
Housing
Do people have adequate housing with basic utilities?
Safety
Do people feel safe?
Foundations of Wellbeing
Basic Education
Do people have access to an educational foundation?
Information & Communications
Can people freely access ideas and information from anywhere in the world?
Health
Do people live long and healthy lives?
Environmental Quality
Does the environment support societal wellbeing?
Opportunity
Rights & Voice
Are people’s rights as individuals protected?
Freedom & Choice
Are people free to make their own life choices?
Inclusive Society
Is no one excluded from the opportunity to be a contributing member of society?
Advanced Education
Do people have access to the world’s most advanced knowledge?
Indicators
To calculate the 2025 SPI Brazil, we used a total of 57 indicators. All these indicators come from official sources and research institutes, such as the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Citizenship, National Sanitation Information System (SNIS), National Institute for Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep), National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), National Council of Justice (CNJ), Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Mapbiomas, Anatel, CadÚnico, among others.
The selection of indicators for each component follows rigorous criteria according to the global SPI methodology. The criteria for indicator selection are:
- Be social or environmental;
- Measure results;
- Have a reliable and public source (secondary data);
- Be recent (maximum 5 years);
Each indicator undergoes a rigorous process in statistical analysis, from validation of data quality and reliability to normalization (so that data is comparable). Kaiser Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Cronbach's Alpha analyses were used to verify the validity and reliability of Principal Component Analysis (PCA).
An advantage of SPI over other social indices is the flexibility to adopt new indicators when necessary. For example, an indicator may lose relevance and be replaced by a more appropriate one in the following SPI edition. And, with historical availability of a new indicator, the SPI can also be calculated retroactively, which enables temporal comparison. This way, the index will always be updated to measure social progress.
Since the last edition of SPI Brazil in 2024, 5 indicators were included in its structure (Ultra-processed Food Consumption – Sisvan, Response to Social Security Cases – CNJ, Response to Family Cases – CNJ, Vulnerability Index of Cadastro Único Families – CadÚnico, and Homeless Families – CadÚnico) and 1 was excluded (Child Labor - CadÚnico).
Construction of the Social Progress Index
The index ranges from 0 (worst) to 100 (best) and corresponds to the simple average of the SPI results from the three dimensions. The score for each dimension, in turn, is the simple average of the results from each of its components. Finally, the component results are generated from weights obtained among indicators through PCA.