DEVELOPMENT OF THE EU SOCIETIES AND SOCIAL PROGRESS

Abstract

Social development is defined as a process of social changes occurring one after another  in conjunction with progress understood as direction of socio-economic development. The aim of the paper is to analyze and evaluate the development of the EU societies, and to assess social progress of the EU-28 member states. The author performed an analysis of the Sustainable Society Index (SSI) and the Social Progress Index (SPI). The findings reveal that the EU-28 countries have attained high level of sustainability in terms of Human Well being and there is an evident convergence between them in this dimension. As it comes to the other two dimensions, that is Environmental Wellbeing and Economic Wellbeing, variation within the EU-28 is much wider (ca. 40%), and points to cross-country divergence. Basic Human Needs that are best addressed across the EU-28, whereas the Foundations of Wellbeing and Opportunity score slightly lower and show a bigger variation.