Rival GDP Measure Puts Emphasis on Social Progress

There is a new way to measure a nation's success, called the Social Progress Index. The economists and other experts behind the SPI say it measures things that directly affect ordinary people, like access to food, opportunity and medical care. That is a different approach than the traditional Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, which just adds up the output of goods and services -- ignoring things like air quality. As Henry Ridgwell reports for VOA, the SPI's creators hope it will offer lessons to policymakers in fast growing African and Latin American economies.