Life in South Asia
Two important indicators of quality of life in a region are Democracy Index and Happiness Index. South Asian indexes are given below.
Democracy Index 2016*
Worldwide position Score
India 32 7.81
Sri Lanka 66 6.48
Bangladesh 84 5.73
Turkey 97 5.04
Nepal 102 4.86
Nigeria 109 4.50
Pakistan 111 4.33
Myanmar 113 4.20
Bhutan 104 3.33
Afghanistan 149 2.55
Maldives No data
*The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide for 165 independent states and two territories.
The index values are used to place countries within one of four types of regime:
- Full democracies: scores of 8 o 10
- Flawed democracies: score of 6 to 7.9
- Hybrid regimes: scores of 4 to 5.9
4 Authoritarian regimes: scores below 4
The Democracy Index is based on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Based on their scores on a range of indicators within these categories, each country is then itself classified as one of four types of regime: “full democracy”; “flawed democracy”; “hybrid regime”; and “authoritarian regime”.
According to the Democracy Index, 76 of the 167 countries covered by the model, or 45.5% of
all countries, can be considered to be democracies. However, the number of “full democracies”
has declined from 20 in 2015 to 19 in in this year’s Democracy Index. The US, a standard-bearer of democracy for the world, has become a “flawed democracy”, as popular confidence in the functioning of public institutions has declined. The score for the US fell to 7.98 from 8.05 in 2015, causing the world’s leading economic superpower to slip below the 8.00 threshold for a “full democracy”. Of the remaining 91 countries in our index, 51 are “authoritarian” and 40 (up from 37 in 2015) are considered to be “hybrid regimes”.
World happiness Index 2017*
Ranking Score
Pakistan 80 5.011
Bhutan 97 5.011
Nepal 99 4.962
Bangladesh 110 4.608
Sri Lanka 120 4.440
India 122 4.315
Afghanistan 141 3.794
Myanmar 114 4.545
This report gives special attention to the social foundations of happiness for individuals and
nations.
*World Happiness Report 2017; Editors John Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffery Sachs
