Quality of Life

“We’re no longer the country we think we are.”—Michael Porter, Social Progress Index

Two recent rankings encapsulate a broad range of public policy areas and show where the United States is ranked in key areas of policy and performance.

The OECD has developed a “Better Life” index, using a variety of measurements: housing, income, community, education, jobs, civic engagement, health, life satisfaction, safety, and work-life balance. In this index, the United States ranked twenty-eighth.

In a second study, the “Social Progress Index,” developed by the Social Progress Imperative, fifty measurements grouped around health, shelter, safety, nutrition, environmental quality, and other data sets, the United States ranked twenty-sixth.

These rankings come before the second Trump administration took office.