SNAPSHOT: PROSPERITY WITHIN COUNTRIES WHILE THE PROSPERITY INDEX MEASURES PROSPERITY AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL, THERE ARE SOMETIMES LARGE DIFFERENCES WITHIN COUNTRIES. IT IS DIFFICULT FOR A GLOBAL INDEX TO PROVIDE INSIGHTS INTO SUB-NATIONAL DIFFERENCES BECAUSE MOST DATA REPRESENT NATIONAL AVERAGES. SOME INDEX DATA CAN, HOWEVER, BE BROKEN DOWN TO PROVIDE SUB-NATIONAL ANALYSIS. THE MAP BELOW EXPLORES VARIATIONS IN THE SOCIAL CAPITAL SUB-INDEX WITHIN INDIA (INDIA’S LARGE AND DIVERSE POPULATION AND ITS CLEARLY DEFINED STATES AND TERRITORIES MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO BREAK DOWN THE DATA TO STATE LEVEL). THE STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH, FOR EXAMPLE, HAS A POPULATION OF ALMOST 200 MILLION PEOPLE COMPARABLE TO THAT OF BRAZIL, THE WORLD’S FIFTH MOST POPULOUS COUNTRY. India ranks 138th globally in the Social Capital sub-index, however, disaggregation of the data at the sub-national level reveals large differences within the country. Within India, the states of Gujarat and Uttarakhand have the highest social capital scores and would rank 15th and 18th, globally, in this sub-index, next to Germany and Belgium, respectively. In the state of Gujarat, 77% of respondents can rely on friends and family for help and 51% have donated money to a charity. In Uttarakhand, 52% of the respondents have volunteered their time and 71% have helped a stranger. The state of Kerala, often cited as an example of successful development achievements, also offers an interesting comparison.1 Its GDP per capita is similar to that of Mauritania but its literacy rate is similar to that of Turkey, whose GDP per capita is seven times larger. Kerala performs relatively well in terms of social capital and would rank 40th, just above France. On the other hand, the states of Punjab and Madhya Pradesh would rank at the bottom of the Social Capital sub-index after Togo and Benin. Only 27% of the respondents in Punjab feel they can rely on others and only 14% of them have volunteered their time in the previous month. Sub-national disaggregation provides interesting insights into ‘within-country’ differences that are often hidden behind global aggregated data. We hope that this feature illustrates how the distribution of prosperity within countries may be not uniform.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 13:07:39 +0000
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