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Tobago). Social progress is a society’s ability to meet the basic human needs of its citizens, create the building blocks that individuals and communities use to improve the quality of their lives, and make it possible for everyone to reach their potential. To understand how social progress differs from one country to another, the Social Progress Imperative scored 133 countries around the world in three categories: Basic Human Needs: Do all people have food, water, shelter, and access to basic medical care? Are they safe? Foundations of Well-being: Do all people get a basic education? Does everyone have health care? Is the environment sustainable? Opportunity: Do people have personal rights and freedoms? Can they participate in the political process? Based on dozens of scores in these three areas, the Social Progress Imperative calculated an overall Social Progress Index (SPI) score for each country. Scores were then classified into six groups, from very low social progress to very high. (Belize, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago had enough data for only some of the SPI categories, so their overall scores could not be calculated.) As shown in the following table, three of the nine ranked countries fell into the high or upper middle ranks; the rest fell into the lower middle rank. Actual scores for each country can be found in Chapter 4. Countries around the world are using SPI scores and rankings to identify areas for improvement and to help guide social investment. Even cities will soon be able to evaluate and compare their levels of social progress as the

12 C ENTRAL A MERICA AND THE C ARIBBEAN