SINGAPORE — Singapore tops the world in a recent report that measured six areas of youth development, which included domains such as 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 well-being 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 last week by the Commonwealth Secretariat, measuring the progress of youth development in 183 countries.

The last report was in 2020, when Singapore was also in top spot.

WHY IT MATTERS

The Youth Development Index tracks progress on the sustainable development goals 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,” the report stated. 

“However, it is an indication of collective progress or decline towards ensuring that young people are not left behind in the pursuit of the sustainable development goals.”

The global average youth development index has improved by 2.8 per cent from 2010 to 2022, it said.

Keeping track of how young people are developing is ever more critical given 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, well-being 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 zero and 1.0, with 1.0 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 was followed by Denmark and Portugal, with the 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 10th place (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, which ranked 16th globally, achieved a score of 0.824.

This was followed by Brunei and New Zealand jointly ranked 27th, with a score of 0.810, and Malaysia (0.802) at 35th place.

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.

The following are the country's scores for the individual domains and how they stack against some other nations.

Education

• Singapore recorded a score of 0.930 and ranked 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 was placed fifth, with a score of 0.958  
• Topping the global chart was Ireland with the score of 0.977
• This is measured by indicators such as percentage of young people with a bank or financial institution account, adolescent fertility rate and underemployment rate

Equality & Inclusion

• This was Singapore’s highest scoring domain, at 0.973
• However, it was in fourth place, while Pakistan, Equatorial Guinea and France shared top spot with a score of 0.977
• Indicators include prevalence of early marriage, gender parity in literacy and economic marginalisation

Health & Well-being

• Singapore was in top place globally, with a score of 0.972
• This was followed by Japan (0.970) and Rwanda (0.968)
• It comprises indicators such as tobacco consumption and HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) rate, as well as years of life lost due to alcohol or drug abuse disorders and self-harm

Peace & Security

• Also in top position, Singapore recorded a score of 0.960 in this domain
• Denmark (0.949) was 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 was Singapore’s worst domain in terms of score (0.324) and ranking (100th)
• The top three nations for this domain were Poland (0.481), Iceland (0.452) and Gabon in Central Africa (0.443)
• This is measured by indicators such as the number of participants who volunteered their time in the past 30 days, or voiced their feedback to an official over the same period