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International Human Suffering Index |
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Score
76%
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212 votes,
Feasibility
87%
Originality
83%
Humour
50% |
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'We released the International Human Suffering Index in 1987,' writes Kathleen Mazzocco of the Population Crisis Committee in Washinton DC, 'and the response from the public has been overwhelming. We estimate a US audience of 100 million to date.'
The Index is presented as a colour poster, with all the countries ranked in order, and showing the close linkage between high suffering and high rates of population increase.
Of the countries classified as part of the 'extreme human suffering' category, 24 are in Africa, 6 are in Asia, and none is in the Western hemisphere. Topping the list is Mozambique (Index rating of 95), followed by Angola, Afghanistan, Chad, Mali, Ghana, Somalia and Niger. The least suffering country is Switzerland (Index rating of 4), followed by West Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and the United States, with the UK 12 places worse than Switzerland with an Index rating of 12.
'The close linkage between high suffering and high rates of population increase'
The trouble with this Index, as with other such attempts, is that it relies on statistics from the World Bank, UN and and other readily available sources, with no attempt at involving citizens in drawing up subjective measures of (dis)satisfaction. The indices conglomerated in the Index are:
- Per capita GNP;
- Average annual rate of inflation;
- Average annual growth of labour force;
- Average annual growth of urban population;
- Infant mortality rate per 1000 live births;
- Daily per capita calorie supply as percent of requirement;
- Per cent of population with access to clean drinking water;
- Energy consumption per capita;
- Adult literacy rate;
- Personal freedom.
'The index also takes note of whether citizens are free from government terror, free to travel, own property, marry and able to vote for more than one political party'
The source for this last personal freedom index is Freedom House which considers a country free if it has freedom of the press and freedom to organise, particularly to organise political parties, trade unions, businesses, religious societies and churches. The index also takes note of whether citizens are free from government terror, free to travel, own property, marry and able to vote for more than one political party.
Additional measures considered for the Suffering Index included data on pollution, unemployment, war, etc but all had some weakness, duplicated measures already chosen or did not cover enough countries.
The authors, Sharon Camp and Joseph Speidel, conclude:
'The Human Suffering Index vividly shows that the majority of the world's people must endure lives of poverty and human misery ... Development efforts such as family planning, health and education could immediately ease the suffering of millions.'
Kathleen Mazzocco, public affairs officer, Population Crisis Committee, 1120 19th Street, N.W, Suite 550, Washington, DC 20036, USA (tel 202 659 1833).
This Index won the prize in the International section of the Institute's Quality of Life competition.
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