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Analysis of the Sustainable Society Index Worldwide: A Study from the Biplot Perspective

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Abstract

Since the Brundtland Report defined the concept of sustainability in 1987, several different indices and indicators have been developed in this area, which is becoming an ever greater concern in society, since it will affect future generations. The main objective of this research study is to analyze whether there are differences in the scores obtained by a broad sample of countries in the Sustainable Society Index according to the geographical area in which the country is located. We apply the HJ-biplot method (Galindo in Questíio 10(1):13–23, 1986), a statistical technique that provides a joint graphical representation in a low dimensional Euclidean space (usually a plane), of a multivariate data matrix; in our study, this is formed by the countries grouped by geographical areas and variables relating to sets of economic, social and environmental indicators included in the Sustainable Society Index. Our findings stress that the variables related to Human Wellbeing fall mainly within the proximity of the countries located in the geographical areas of Europe, America and, to a lesser extent, Asia. In contrast, other variables associated with Environmental Wellbeing, such as greenhouse gases, renewable energy, and air quality are mainly located closer to Africa, and more residually to Asia. In order to represent the most relevant variables in each geographical area and corroborate the results obtained using the HJ-biplot methodology, an analysis was carried out of the radial graph that represents the values of each variable along the independent axes in the form of radii that have their starting point in the centre of the plot and end in the outer ring such that each radius corresponds to a variable. The results obtained show the characteristics of each geographical area in relation to the Sustainable Society Index, and confirm the results obtained with the HJ-biplot.

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Notes

  1. By “closer proximity” we mean the proximity between the countries grouped in geographical areas and the variables that are the sustainability indicators. Put more technically, the countries grouped by geographical area have similar profiles with respect to the variables, since all of them project close to the end of the vector representing the variable (see Fig. 4), e.g. Africa and greenhouse gases. As for the individuals (countries grouped by geographical area), when they are close to a vector, it implies that they take predominant values for that variable, in the sense that the individuals are significant to explain the variable and that the variable is of great value for the individuals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, Salamanca University, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

    Isabel Gallego-Álvarez

  2. Department of Statistics, Salamanca University, 37007, Salamanca, Spain

    Mª Purificación Galindo-Villardón & Miguel Rodríguez-Rosa

Authors
  1. Isabel Gallego-Álvarez
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  2. Mª Purificación Galindo-Villardón
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  3. Miguel Rodríguez-Rosa
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Isabel Gallego-Álvarez.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 3.

Table 3 Countries in the sample
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Appendix 2

See Table 4.

Table 4 Geographical areas and variables
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Gallego-Álvarez, I., Galindo-Villardón, M.P. & Rodríguez-Rosa, M. Analysis of the Sustainable Society Index Worldwide: A Study from the Biplot Perspective. Soc Indic Res 120, 29–65 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-014-0579-9

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