Not top of the league

 The Social Progress Index (SPI) studies 132 nations and evaluates 54 social and environmental indicators for each country that matter to real people. Rather than measuring a country’s success by its per capita GDP, the index is based on an array of data reflecting suicide, ecosystem sustainability, property rights, access to healthcare and education, gender equality, attitudes toward immigrants and minorities, religious freedom, nutrition, infrastructure and more. The index measures the livability of each country. People everywhere depend on and care about similar things. “We all need clean water. We all want to feel safe and live without fear. People everywhere want to get an education and improve their lives,” says Harvard business professor Michael E. Porter, who earlier developed the Global Competitiveness Report, and who designed the SPI. But economic growth alone doesn’t guarantee these things.

While the U.S. enjoys the second highest per capita GDP of $45,336, its SPI rank is 16th place overall. The U.S. ranks 70th in health, 69th in ecosystem sustainability, 39th in basic education, 34th in access to water and sanitation and 31st in personal safety.  Astonishing that for a country that has Silicon Valley, Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Oracle, and so on, the U.S. ranks 23rd in access to the Internet. Not a single U.S. city is included in the world’s top 10 most livable cities.

With "the pursuit of Happiness" as part of its Declaration of Independence, in terms of happiness, the USA ranked 17th.

From AlterNet