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: