measuring social progress

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does anybody here know of theories to measure social progress

there is a statistic called the Human Development Index - that is good for getting an overview of where a country is at any time, and for tracking changes over time.

>> Wikipedia article on Human Development Index <<

It doesn't measure everything, but is much better than GDP or other statistics. It does include income as one variable, but also includes literacy, infant mortality, average lifespan, and other variables. It does not explicitly measure the status of women, but that variable is usually co-linear with the others. There is also a 'happiness index' that someone keeps - I think Denmark came in first.

Here is info on the Happy Planet Index - it is different from the other survey I heard about. It seems to have some problems.

>> Happy Planet Index <<


There are other statistics on suicide rates by country. While that might be somewhat related to happiness, I think it is more an indication of the mental health system - if people with depression are identified and treated, the suicide rate goes down significantly, even if the over all happiness of the people doesnt change so much.