1.1 What is the Youth Development Index?
The Youth Development Index (YDI) is a resource for researchers, policy-makers and civil society, including young people, to track progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) associated with youth development. This is a process that enhances the status of young people, empowering them to build on their competences and capabilities for life and enabling them to contribute to and benefit from a politically stable, economically viable and legally supportive environment, ensuring their full participation as active citizens in their countries.
The 2023 YDI measures progress in 183 countries, including 50 of the 56 Commonwealth countries. It covers six domains of youth development: Education, Employment and Opportunity, Equality and Inclusion, Health and Wellbeing, Peace and Security, and Political and Civic Participation. Changes in 27 indicators across the six domains are tracked over a 12-year period from 2010 to 2022. As is customary with global development indices, references to the 2023 YDI score reflect data up to the previous year. Where indicators are used that refer specifically to the situation of the youth population, the definition of youth is of persons 15–29 years old, though data is sometimes available only for those 15–24 years old.
The methodology and indicators used to compile the 2023 YDI are the same as those used in the 2020 report, making this the first update that can be directly compared with a previous report. Annex 1 presents full details of the indicators comprising the methodology, and Annex 2 lists the country rankings and scores against the index and its indicators (annex 2).
1.2 How should we interpret the YDI?
The YDI score is a number between 0 and 1, with 1 representing the highest possible level of youth development attainable across all indicators. A score of 0, therefore, reflects little to no youth development.
Chapter 2, which outlines the overall and domain scores countries have achieved, makes reference to four levels of youth development: ‘very high’, ‘high’, ‘medium’ and ‘low’. A country’s level of youth development is dependent on its position relative to other countries on a spectrum of ‘relatively good’ to ‘relatively poor’. This relative approach acknowledges that a score of 1 is idealistic and practically impossible, and a score of 0 is also practically impossible.
As a global comparison tool, the YDI uses national-level data, which can sometimes mask variations in youth development at sub-national levels. It compares scores between countries and regions but does not provide insights into variations or inequalities in youth development within a country. It also does not measure every aspect of youth development – focusing instead on a core set of indicators that expert literature has shown heavily influences development outcomes for young people. There is a strong relationship between the YDI and most of the SDGs – meaning that countries that perform well on youth development also tend to have made greater progress towards the SDGs.
In summary, the YDI allows us to take a temperature check on progress towards youth development in the world. Increasing or declining scores signal the need for further investigation and dialogue on the situation of young people and for prompt action to scale up good practice or undertake reforms. It is not a definitive diagnosis or situation analysis of each country’s policies or programmes. 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.
1.3 What have we learned from the 2023 update?
1.3.1 Summary of global progress
Progress on youth development continues to be slow. Overall, over the past 12 years (2010–2022), the global average YDI score has improved by 2.8 per cent. There has been moderate but steady improvement every year.
Unexpectedly, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic did not interrupt this trend, with the global score rising by 0.54 per cent between 2019 and 2021, slightly higher than the average two-year rate of improvement over the decade. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is only beginning to be revealed, however, and the trends need to be studied in subsequent years to see if further changes become apparent. A long-view analysis is prominent in this update report, covering multiple years, as this is helpful in understanding broad trends, giving a better picture of progress than shorter timeframes, which unusual changes in a single year may influence. However, where possible, insights are shared on the changes since the last 2020 YDI report, which included data up to 2018.
In summary, the following are the highlights from the 2023 results across 183 countries.
- Singapore had the highest level of youth development in the 2023 YDI, followed by Denmark, Portugal, Iceland and Slovenia.
- Afghanistan had the lowest level, followed by Central African Republic, Niger, Chad and Somalia.
- Of the 183 countries included in the 2023 YDI, 166, or 90.7 per cent, recorded improvements over the 12-year period.
- The five countries recording the greatest improvements from 2010 to 2022 were Haiti, Côte d’Ivoire, Myanmar, Indonesia and Burkina Faso.
- Niger, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Angola recorded the largest deteriorations.
- On average, the top five most improved countries saw their scores rise by 13.0 per cent, while the five largest fallers saw an average deterioration of 4.0 per cent.
- All six YDI domains – Education, Employment and Opportunity, Equality and Inclusion, Health and Wellbeing, Peace and Security, and Political and Civic Participation – saw their global averages improve since 2010. However, the global average scores on Political and Civic Participation are still the lowest in absolute terms, reaching a peak of only 0.321 in 2021 and staying constant in 2022. This suggests there is need to invest more in the enabling environment for youth engagement in governance, decision-making and civic action.
- The largest global improvement was recorded in the Employment and Opportunity domain, which improved by 6.1 per cent between 2010 and 2022.
- The Peace and Security domain recorded the smallest global improvement, with its global score improving by only 0.22 per cent.
- All of the nine global regional groupings used in this report recorded improvements in their average YDI scores from 2010 to 2022.
- Sub-Saharan Africa recorded the largest improvement in its average youth development levels, at 3.81 per cent. This region was followed by South America, South Asia, the Asia-Pacific region, and the Russia and Eurasia region.
1.3.2 Summary of Commonwealth progress
Over the 12-year period from 2010 to 2022, Commonwealth countries recorded an average improvement in youth development of 2.6 per cent, lower than the 2.8 per cent improvement in the global average. Since 2020, the improvement has been by a marginal 0.24 per cent, reinforcing the finding that, though positive, the pace of progress continues to be very slow.
Of the 50 Commonwealth countries included in the 2023 YDI, 47, or 94.0 per cent, saw their scores improve. The highlights of the Commonwealth results follow.
Singapore remains the top-ranked Commonwealth country, followed by Malta, Cyprus, New Zealand and Brunei.
Mozambique remains the lowest-ranked Commonwealth country, followed by Lesotho, Nigeria, Malawi and Tanzania, as shown in Figure 1.1.
Progress in the thematic areas is promising when viewed over the 12 years, as is shown in Figure 1.2. On average, the Commonwealth has made progress in all six YDI domains, with the largest improvement seen in the Political and Civic Participation and the Employment and Opportunity domains. Commonwealth countries, which have benefited from over 50 years of investment in youth policy development through the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP), are performing better than the global average.
However, average scores on Political and Civic Participation, both globally and in the Commonwealth, are still the lowest on the index in absolute terms. The highest average score achieved on Political and Civic Participation in the Commonwealth was 0.339, first achieved in 2016, after which the score declined for two years before gradually increasing and returning to its peak level of 0.339 in 2021, where it remained constant to 2022. Scores have improved since 2010 but this domain continues to perform poorly relative to other domains.
Peace and Security registered the smallest improvement of all domains among Commonwealth countries, recording an average improvement of 0.75 per cent over 12 years – still above the global average. At the same time, average scores declined slightly since 2019, suggesting a weaker environment for peace and security.
More than two-thirds of Commonwealth countries (62.0 per cent) remain in the low and medium categories of youth development. Continued tracking of progress on the YDI is critical to enable us to develop strategies to improve the performance of these countries, and to better understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and a changing global environment on prospects for positive change.
1.4 What new data has become available?
This update provides new data points for 22 of the 27 indicators covered by the index. In other words, the latest year of data availability has been updated beyond 2018 for these indicators. Since the last report, nine indicators have globally comparable data up to 2019, one indicator is updated to 2020, nine indicators have data up to 2021 and three indicators have been updated to 2022. The details of these are outlined in Table A.1 in Annex 1.
These variations reflect the fact that youth-disaggregated data is still limited in some areas. Data on youth-specific digital engagement, the inclusion of young people with disabilities, and experiences of crime, violence, peace and security are still inadequate, and cannot yet be compared across countries with up-to-date evidence. This, despite the fact that the aforementioned development issues were highlighted, during the COVID-19 pandemic, as priorities for monitoring equity in development outcomes between the most disadvantaged and the most privileged groups of people. Furthermore, data is still limited for the smallest states, including six Commonwealth states that could not be included in the index: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Nauru, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Tuvalu. The small overseas territories of the United Kingdom are also excluded.
A renewed focus on data collection and disaggregation for youth, as well as continued and more frequent updating of the YDI through strengthened partnerships, is imperative if we are to effectively monitor progress towards the 2030 deadline for the SDGs. A few indicators that can be reviewed in subsequent years – for example per capita analysis of underemployment rates – are among the priorities for future updates.
1.5 What are the implications for the Year of Youth and beyond?
During this Commonwealth Year of Youth, the Secretariat has been supporting member countries and other stakeholders to engage with all our multilateral and regional partners to:
- energise stakeholders to recommit to the inclusive participation of young people
- empower young people to co-lead and co-create solutions to the challenges of development, democracy, diversity and peace
- envision a renewed Commonwealth agenda for youth development
- engage partners to increase investment in creating an enabling environment for youth empowerment.
The findings of this report call for a recommitment to youth development through these four objectives, given that progress remains slow. The results also call for the building of legacy initiatives that will revitalise the CYP, youth-led networks and initiatives, as vehicles to support member countries to reap improved scores in the weakest and waning domains of the index, including on Political and Civic Participation and on Peace and Security.