A Picture of Youth
New index maps out international youth development
Globally, there are two main indexes for measuring and comparing youth development among countries and regions, and across differing levels of economic development. One is the Global Youth Development Index (YDI) developed by the Secretariat of the Commonwealth, and the other is the Youth Progress Index (YPI) jointly released by the European Youth Forum, the platform of youth organizations in Europe, and the Social Progress Imperative, an international nonprofit. The top 20 entrants on the most recent rankings, YDI 2020 and YPI 2021, are all advanced economies as defined by the International Monetary Fund.
However, 87 percent of the world’s population aged 15 to 24 live in developing countries. “Do the two indexes fully measure the effects of developing countries’ actions to prioritize youth development?” wondered Xie Jin, Director of the Center for Youth Moral Education (CYME) at Tsinghua University.
On December 18, 2021, the CYME and partners jointly released the International Youth Sustainable Development Index (YSDI) Report 2021. “China, as the world’s largest developing country, needs to contribute its own perspectives when measuring youth development,” Xie told Beijing Review.
As the first index of its kind compiled by Chinese research institutes, the metrics used by the YSDI were selected from those used by the UN and other international organizations, as well as one Chinese action plan.
The YSDI placed its focus on health and wellbeing, education, employment and opportunity, family and society, and civic participation, which are common concerns for young people around the world.
“The Lisbon Declaration states that the family is the basic unit of society and as such should be strengthened. Many other international actions for youth development also aim to reinforce the connections between generations,” Xie said. “Family and society-related indicators are thus also considered in the YSDI. These involve marriage rate, fertility rate, total dependency ratio, and the Numbeo Safety Index, which measures relative feelings of safety in cities worldwide.”
The 2021 version of the report ranked 85 countries, including members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, the Group of 20 and BRICS, as well as countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. The project team excluded those countries whose unavailable indicators exceeded two.
The top 10 countries on the YSDI consist of four Asian countries (Singapore, Israel, Bahrain and Kuwait), five European countries (Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland and Austria) and one country from Oceania (Australia). Of these, eight are developed countries (Singapore, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Australia, Israel and Austria) and two are developing countries (Bahrain and Kuwait).
The report said developing economies have made substantial efforts to promote employment and create opportunities for young people. As a result, some of them have pulled ahead of several developed economies and have laid a solid foundation for overall youth development. In the ranking of countries by measures of employment and opportunity, in 27 out of 30 leading countries, civic participation of young people was either ahead of or close to their overall YSDI ranking.
A happy marriage and a happy family life in a safe society are the major expectations of young people in all countries after they leave school. In the ranking, according to measures relating to family and society, some countries such as Chad, India, Benin and Niger came up high on the list, well above their overall YSDI ranking, and only one European country, Romania, and one developed economy, Singapore, were among the top 10 countries.
The levels of family and marital happiness, and societal safety are not necessarily related to geographical location or the socioeconomic development level, Xie said. If a country overlooks its young people’s marriage, family and societal safety needs while its economy strides forward, overall youth development will be reduced.
China ranked 23rd on the 2021 YSDI list. “It is higher than its position on YDI 2020, 62nd of 181, and on YPI 2021, 72nd of 150,” Xie said.
China received relatively high scores in the health and wellbeing, as well as civic participation domains. “The prevalence of anxiety disorders in the age group of 1539 years and the drug abuse rate are low,” she said.
China ranked ninth in civic participation, higher than many developed economies. Xie said this testifies to the notable progress China has made in fostering social inclusion and promoting the civic participation of its young people.
In addition, if compared with global rankings by GDP per capita and by the Human Development Index developed by the United Nations Development Programme, China’s YSDI ranking is ahead of both.
Chinese young people are ready to team up with their peers all around the world to build a community with a shared future for humanity and make the world a better place for all, the report concluded.