Beyond GDP: The Social Progress Podcast
Insight and inspiration on making the right choices for people and planet. We feature bold conversations with global leaders and innovators from government, businesses, community advocacy, foundations, and more who are charting a path for inclusive growth and sustainability. Hosted by Michael Green, CEO at Social Progress Imperative, we explore how the world must move beyond GDP metrics and economic growth to truly improve the social and environmental wellbeing of communities. ©Beyond GDP: The Social Progress Podcast is an essential listening for decision-makers ready to do things differently.
Beyond GDP: The Social Progress Podcast
Is Global Progress Over? The True State of the World
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Is the world really doomed to decline? New data from the 2026 Global Social Progress Index shows a worrying halt in global quality of life after decades of steady progress. But what’s behind this worrying trend, and is there any hope for reversal?
This episode isn't just about grim stats; it's about understanding the critical choices ahead.
Explore the 2026 Global Social Progress Index results!
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Is the world going to hell in a hand cart? I mean sadly, the answer does seem to be yes, because new data from the Social Progress Index shows us that quality of life around the world is stagnant and actually probably going to get worse. In this video, I'm going to explain how and why this is happening. And I'll also tell you why I do think there is still a glimmer of hope. Now, the world has been on a long bull run of improving quality of life over the last 30 years. Whether it's life expectancy, deaths from diseases, more kids in school, infrastructure and services, expanding democracy and freedom, things have generally been moving in the right direction. Not everywhere and for everyone, but the general trend has been upwards. And this is all the good stuff that we measure in the Social Progress Index for 171 countries. Now what you'll see here is that from 2011, world social progress steadily chugged upwards. But progress nonetheless. That was, however, until 2021 when it stalled. Not a COVID-related blip, but a real slowdown. Now, this new negative trajectory for the world starts with a decline in rights and freedoms. And this is a longer-term trend that's been going on for more than a decade, driven by the rising tide of populist and authoritarian leaders around the world. From Russia to Turkey to Hungary to El Salvador, a generation of politicians have squeezed human rights, press freedom, and academic freedom. What's changed in the last few years is that squeeze on rights has metastasized into other areas of social progress. Safety, health, and environmental quality have stopped improving. Housing, water and sanitation, and information communications have all slowed significantly. And this global trend of declining rights leading to wider declines in social progress mirrors what we've seen in countries with populist and authoritarian leaders. The declining rights are followed by this wider deterioration. Just look at Turkey, which has slumped 18 places in the Global Social Progress Index since 2011. The longer populist and authoritarian leaders stay in office, the faster social progress sadly is going to decline. And given the political success of people like this, odds on things are actually going to get worse. Now that's all very depressing. And I did promise you a glimmer of hope. And where that comes from is countries like Brazil and Poland that went through a phase of authoritarian government, President Bolsonaro in Brazil, the Law and Justice Party in Poland. And in both countries, we saw the classic pattern that under this kind of leadership, social progress stagnated or fell back. What we also see is that once these populist authoritarians are out of power, social progress can bounce back quickly. So it's quite simple, really. If we don't want the world to go to hell in a hand cart, we need to stop picking leaders who just play on the divisions in our society. The future's in our hands, let's choose wisely. Thank you so much for watching. Do subscribe, and if you want to check out all the data, it's on our website. Thank you.