Social Exclusion Index by country (fit in, homes, wealthy)

[Keeno]

The Social Exclusion Index is an idea I've had inspired by the Human Development Index, but with three different variables instead representing some manifestations of social exclusion in society.

a) Obesity rate % (up to 30.6, USA, highest in OECD obesity list)
b) Suicide rate per 100,000 per annum (up to 31.1, Lithuania, highest in world)
c) Intolerance of homesexuality (% by country who think homosexuality not acceptable, divided by 3, from Pew Research Survey)

The above variables all fit into a scale from 0 to 33.3, and as in the HDI the Social Exclusion Index is the geometric mean of the three.

What's below is just a rough start of an idea with just some selected countries (those that appeared in two or more of the surveys above with statistical gaps filled in from other sources), maybe people think there are other variables that should be included instead of or in addition to the above?

Ukraine 20.2
Russia 20.0
South Africa 18.1
USA 16.7
Hungary 15.6
Poland 15.5
South Korea 13.7
Slovakia 13.1
Israel 13.0
Bulgaria 12.8
New Zealand 12.5
Venezuela 11.8
Kuwait 11.8
Ireland 11.6
UK 11.4
Australia 11.4
Czech Republic 10.7
Canada 10.6
Argentina 10.1
Finland 10.0
Mexico 10.0
France 9.7
Turkey 9.6
Belgium 9.6
Luxembourg 9.3
Jordan 9.3
Portugal 9.2
Japan 9.0
Germany 8.9
Greece 8.7
Austria 8.7
Switzerland 8.7
Iceland 8.5
India 8.4
Brazil 8.0
Sweden 7.7
China 7.6
Denmark 7.6
Norway 7.4
Netherlands 7.2
Italy 7.0
Spain 6.8
Peru 6.3
Philippines 4.2
Egypt 4.1

It's amazing how often culturally similar countries cluster together on this list (RUS/UKR, IRE/UK/AUS, FRA/BEL/LUX, GER/AUT/SWI, SWE/DEN/NOR, SPA/ITA), meanwhile the combination of individualism and (for such a developed country) conservatism probably explain the US position.

[jtur88]

What do you mean by "Social Exclusion"? I cannot think of anything that would link Obesity and Suicide together as any kind of a common social parameter.

[elnina]

Originally Posted by Keeno

It's amazing how often culturally similar countries cluster together on this list (RUS/UKR, IRE/UK/AUS, FRA/BEL/LUX, GER/AUT/SWI, SWE/DEN/NOR, SPA/ITA), meanwhile the combination of individualism and (for such a developed country) conservatism probably explain the US position.

Sure, the cultural similarities are overwhelming:
South Korea 13.7
Slovakia 13.1
Israel 13.0

Israel 13.0
Bulgaria 12.8
New Zealand 12.5

Argentina 10.1
Finland 10.0
Mexico 10.0

Jordan 9.3
Portugal 9.2
Japan 9.0

Iceland 8.5
India 8.4
Brazil 8.0

Sweden 7.7
China 7.6

Philippines 4.2
Egypt 4.1

I don't understand the concept of this index. It doesn't make any sense to me...
And what explain the US position here, again?

[Thomas R.]

I didn't think this worked with the US, but it works even less well on a global level.

At a global level there are countries that commit genocide or official discrimination against ethnic or religious minorities. This wouldn't really deal with that at all, but I think that would tell us more about "social exclusion" than how fat they are or whatever.

[takeo3]

Originally Posted by jtur88

what do you mean by "social exclusion"? I cannot think of anything that would link obesity and suicide together as any kind of a common social parameter.

2

Russia and Ukrain top the list, what does it say about Russia?
What I know is that Russians aren't very tolerant of gays, are not obese but not very thin either, and have a rather high suicide rate.
Now what is the conclusion?

[jtur88]

Originally Posted by takeo3

2

Russia and Ukrain top the list, what does it say about Russia?
What I know is that Russians aren't very tolerant of gays, are not obese but not very thin either, and have a rather high suicide rate.
Now what is the conclusion?

It says that, among several thousand different criteria by which people can be "judged", Russia and Ukraine both rank high in either suicide or obesity or maybe even both.

Quick, off the top of your head, are suicide victims more likely to be fat, or thin? Are fat people who commit suicide more or less tolerant of gays? What's the connection? There isn't any. You have chosen three random variables, only one of which reflects a person's external social behavior and interpersonal relationships, and clustered them into a single meaningless statistic.

It's like rating countries by average shoe size, beer consumption, and number of children. Unless you can demonstrate that there is a correlation that connect your three behaviors into a socio-personality type.

[takeo3]

Originally Posted by jtur88

It says that, among several thousand different criteria by which people can be "judged", Russia and Ukraine both rank high in either suicide or obesity or maybe even both.

Quick, off the top of your head, are suicide victims more likely to be fat, or thin? Are fat people who commit suicide more or less tolerant of gays? What's the connection? There isn't any. You have chosen three random variables, only one of which reflects a person's external social behavior and interpersonal relationships, and clustered them into a single meaningless statistic.

It's like rating countries by average shoe size, beer consumption, and number of children. Unless you can demonstrate that there is a correlation that connect your three behaviors into a socio-personality type.

They don't rank high in obesity, especially if you compare to the US.
Why would suicide victims be fat? Actually in many countries including Russia "fat" means wealthy and enjoying life.
There is no correlation between being fat and not being tolerant of gays in Russia.

however I can imagine that in the US there is a correlation between being fat, high suicide rate and not being tolerant of gays (=mid West, lower classes), this is not necessarily the case in other countries and cultures.