80 countries containing half the world population rank as low, very low or critical in the BCI. Only 16 of them are improving fast since 2000. Yet, this group includes large countries, like India, and a total population of 1.6 billion. Meanwhile, 13 countries with low BCI and a combined population of 150 million people are regressing, most of them suffer war and armed conflicts.

An absolute majority of the world population lives in countries which are stagnant in their social indicators or not progressing fast enough to reach an acceptable level in the next decade, or for which there is no reliable information to determine a trend. In the case of
Sub-Saharan Africa, in spite of the recent impressive economic growth, progress in the social indicators is so slow that, at the current rate, an acceptable BCI would only be achieved in the 23rd century!