SINGAPORE, May 3 — Singapore tops the world in a recent report measuring six areas of youth development, which include domains like education, equality and inclusion as well as political and civic participation.
The island nation shone particularly brightly in two domains where it ranked number one globally — health and wellbeing as well as peace and security. Singapore’s worst score was in political and civic participation, where it ranked 100th worldwide.
These were part of the Global Youth Development Index Report released recently (April 26) by the Commonwealth Secretariat, measuring the progress of youth development in 183 countries.
The last report was in 2020, when Singapore also emerged in top spot.
Why it matters
According to the report, the Youth Development Index tracks progress on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) associated with youth developments, making it a useful resource for researchers, policy-makers and civil societies.
“It is not a definitive diagnosis or situation analysis of each country’s policies or programmes,” said the report.
“However, it is an indication of collective progress or decline towards ensuring that young people are not left behind in the pursuit of the SDGs.”
The global average youth development index has improved by 2.8 per cent from 2010 to 2022, it said.
Keeping track of how youths are developing is ever more critical given the fact that almost half the global population and about 60 per cent of the Commonwealth population are under 30 years old, the report noted.
Yet the world in general grapples with an ageing population, with the share of young people declining. The world thus needs to prepare for this “demographic transition”.
“A critical element of preparedness is the creation of an enabling environment that will equip young people to ‘age well’ by maintaining their health, wellbeing and productivity now in order to reap the benefits in the future,” it added.
How Singapore ranks against others
The Youth Development Index score is a number between 0 and 1, with 1 representing the highest level of youth development, and broken down into the following levels:
- Low: 0.000 to 0.675
- Medium: 0.675 to 0.738
- High: 0.738 to 0.798
- Very High: 0.798 to 1.000
Singapore achieved an overall score of 0.8668, within the “very high” band of development.
This is followed by Denmark and Portugal, with respective scores of 0.862 and 0.848.
Malta is the only other Commonwealth nation among the global top 10, sitting at joint eighth position with Spain with a score of 0.832, followed by Switzerland in number 10 (0.830).
No other Asian or Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) countries sit in the top 10.
In the Asia Pacific region, South Korea, ranked 16th globally, achieved a score of 0.824.
This is followed by Brunei and New Zealand jointly ranked 27th, with a score of 0.810 and Malaysia (0.802) at 35th.
How Singapore scored in each domain
Singapore scored in the “very high” range for all the domains except political and civic participation, where it registered a “very low” band.
Here are Singapore’s scores for the individual domains and how they stack against some other nations:
Education
- Singapore recorded a score of 0.930 and ranks 18th globally
- The highest score for this domain was 0.977, by European nation Luxembourg
- This domain looks at indicators such as literacy rate and lower secondary school completion rate
Employment & opportunity
- Singapore ranks number 5, with a score of 0.958
- Topping the global chart is Ireland with the score of 0.977
- This is measured by indicators such as percentage of youths with a bank or financial institution account, adolescent fertility rate and underemployment rate
Equality & inclusion
- This is Singapore’s highest scoring domain, at 0.973
- However, the island nation sits at number 4, while Pakistan, Equatorial Guinea and France share top spot with a score of 0.977
- Indicators include prevalence of early marriage, gender parity in literacy and economic marginalisation
Health & wellbeing
- Singapore is number 1 globally, with a score of 0.972
- This is followed by Japan (0.970) and Rwanda (0.968)
- It comprises indicators like tobacco consumption and HIV rate, as well as years of life lost due to alcohol or drug abuse disorders and self-harm
Peace & security
- Also in number 1 position, Singapore recorded a score of 0.960 in this domain
- Denmark (0.949) sits in second place, followed by Ireland (0.948)
- Indicators include a composite internal peace score based on a global index, as well as years of life lost due to armed conflict and terrorism, among others
Political & civic participation
- This is Singapore’s worst domain in terms of score (0.324) and ranking (100th)
- Top three nations for this domain are Poland (0.481), Iceland (0.452) and Gabon (0.443)
- This is measured by indicators such as number of participants who volunteered their time in the past 30 days, or voiced their feedback to an official over the same period — TODAY
