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
Europe's Hidden Gems for Quality of Life
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Living in a wealthy capital city gives you the best quality of life? Not necessarily. While Northern Europe consistently tops the Social Progress Index ranking, the 2026 EU Regional Social Progress Index discovers hidden gems where wellbeing and social outcomes far exceed economic development.
We use the Social Progress Imperative methodology adopted by the European Commission to look beyond GDP. We explore regions that prove you don't need a massive bank balance to enjoy safety, clean environments, and advanced education.
Places like Extremadura in Spain, Northern Portugal near Porto, Podlaskie in Poland, Northern and Western Ireland and the North Aegean Islands are your safe options when looking for places to live in Europe.
Check out the full EU Regional Social Progress Index: https://www.socialprogress.org/thematic-webpages/european-union-regional-social-progress-index
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If you're looking for quality of life, most of the best countries are in Europe. And the best of the best are to be found in Northern Europe, in countries like Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. But I want today to go a bit beyond that and find some hidden gems. Cities and regions in Europe that may be a little bit underdeveloped, but where quality of life is surprisingly good. Now I found these using the EU Regional Social Progress Index, which is produced by the European Commission using the Social Progress Imperative methodology. So it gives us a set of measures across regions of Europe, and the link is in the description below if you want to look at the data. That's the region from the port city of Porto going out to the north and east. Lots of people holiday in southern Portugal, but this is the northern part which is traditionally less developed. Indeed, it's classified as one of the least developed regions of the European Union. But northern Portugal's lack of economic development is made up for high scores on safety, environmental quality, governance, and freedom. Maybe give it a try. For our second choice, we hop across the border to Spain and the region of Extra and Madura, where the big city there is Badajoz. Now, this is quite a barren province, and it's also one of the least developed regions of Europe again. But Extra Madura does offer good health and nutrition, good higher education, but it might be a better choice for retirees and families because the education scores aren't great. Third on our list is in Poland, and it's we're going to the east of Poland, right onto the border with Belarus. It's the Podlasia region, capital city Biawystok, home of the Biawier Forest, where the wild bison roam free. Now, again, still it's a relatively underdeveloped, quite rural region, but what we find there is it's a very family-friendly place. Podlasia does very well on safety and also has great schools. Our fourth hidden gem is down south, back to the sun, to the Aegean Sun, in fact. The North Aegean islands of Greece, that's uh Samos, Lemnos, Lesbos, etc., are not wealthy, but they are safe, healthy, and inclusive places to live. For our fifth and final hidden gem, we're going to go to a region that's a little bit more developed, but it's still classified by the European Commission as being a transition region, so one that's not yet fully developed, and that is Northern and Western Ireland. So it's places like County Donegal, County Mayo, that kind of part of the world. And there you'll find great education and health, as well as safety, freedom, inclusion, and a good environment. Northern and Western Ireland may not be the richest, but quality of life it's got it all. So there you go. Five European gems. But Europe also has places where economic development has run ahead and social progress is lagging behind. But I think those will be for another day. Thank you so much for watching. Do like and subscribe. We'll do more of these analyses using social progress index data. If you've got a region or a country you want to know about or an issue you'd like us to discuss, drop a comment down below and we'd love to follow up. Thanks again and bye bye.