Britain ranks one of the worst advanced countries for employment opportunities, pay, living standards and social inclusion.
That is according to the World Economic Forum, which released a major new report entitled "WEF Inclusive Growth and Development Report" on Sunday evening.
The report includes the "Inclusive Development Index," which measures 109 countries for inclusive development. Out of these countries, 30 are considered "advanced economies" and within that sub-index, the UK ranks 21st out of 30.
The results are derived by looking at 12 key performance indicators of inclusive development under three pillars:
- Growth and Development;
- Inclusion;
- Intergenerational Equity and Sustainability.
Within these pillars, WEF gets a score from looking at each country's ranking in:
- GDP growth, labour force participation and productivity, and healthy life expectancy;
- Median household income, poverty and two inequality measures
- Adjusted net saving (including natural capital depletion and human capital investment), demographic dependency ratio, public debt and carbon intensity.
And this is the chart to show how the UK performed:
"Over the past several years, a worldwide consensus has emerged on the need for a more inclusive growth and development model; however, this consensus is mainly directional. Inclusive growth remains more a discussion topic than an action agenda," said WEF in the report.
"This Report seeks to help countries and the wider international community practice inclusive growth and development by offering a new policy framework and corresponding set of policy and performance indicators for this purpose.
"The ultimate objective of national economic performance is broad-based and sustained progress in living standards, a concept that encompasses wage and non-wage income (e.g., pension benefits) as well as economic opportunity, security and quality of life."
The report found that across 26 advanced economies, median income declined by 2.4% between 2008 and 2013. Norway ranked number one in the index as even living standards rose by 10.6% over that same time period, even though the economy grew only 0.5%.
Luxembourg came in second and Switzerland came in third.
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