A Picture of Youth

New index maps out international youth development By Tao Xing

Globally, there are two main indexes for measuring and comparing youth development among countries and regions,and across differing levels of economic development. One is the Global Youth Development Index (YDI) developed by the Secretariat of the Commonwealth, and the other is the Youth Progress Index (YPI) jointly released by the European Youth Forum, the platform of youth organizations in Europe, and the Social Progress Imperative, an international nonprofit. The top 20 entrants on the most recent rankings, YDI 2020 and YPI 2021, are all advanced economies as defined by the International Monetary Fund.

However, 87 percent of the world’s population aged 15 to 24 live in developing countries. “Do the two indexes fully measure the effects of developing countries’ actions to prioritize youth development?”wondered Xie Jin, Director of the Center for Youth Moral Education (CYME) at Tsinghua University.

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On December 18, 2021, the CYME and partners jointly released the International Youth Sustainable Development Index (YSDI) Report 2021. “China,as the world’s largest developing country, needs to contribute its own perspectives when measuring youth development,” Xie told.

As the first index of its kind compiled by Chinese research institutes, the metrics used by the YSDI were selected from those used by the UN and other international organizations, as well as one Chinese action plan.

The YSDI placed its focus on health and wellbeing, education, employment and opportunity, family and society, and civic participation, which are common concerns for young people around the world.

China ranked 23rd on the 2021 YSDI list. “It is higher than its position on YDI 2020, 62nd of 181, and on YPI 2021, 72nd of 150,” Xie said.

教师们受传统教学观念的影响比较重，仍处于相对落后的教学思想中，特别是传统的应试教育在许多学校中教学中根深蒂固，人们一时难以转变教学模式，接受新的教学方法。这就导致了在进行小组合作学习时的效果不佳，难以开展，教师们没有帮助学生们掌握到小组学习的精髓，因此难以达到理想的目标。

A happy marriage and a happy family life in a safe society are the major expectations of young people in all countries after they leave school. In the ranking, according to measures relating to family and society, some countries such as Chad, India, Benin and Niger came up high on the list, well above their overall YSDI ranking, and only one European country, Romania, and one developed economy, Singapore, were among the top 10 countries.

The top 10 countries on the YSDI consist of four Asian countries (Singapore,Israel, Bahrain and Kuwait), five European countries (Norway, Belgium, Denmark,Iceland and Austria) and one country from Oceania (Australia). Of these, eight are developed countries (Singapore, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Australia, Israel and Austria) and two are developing countries (Bahrain and Kuwait).

The 2021 version of the report ranked 85 countries, including members of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, the Group of 20 and BRICS, as well as countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative. The project team excluded those countries whose unavailable indicators exceeded two.

The levels of family and marital happiness, and societal safety are not necessarily related to geographical location or the socioeconomic development level, Xie said.If a country overlooks its young people’s marriage, family and societal safety needs while its economy strides forward, overall youth development will be reduced.

“The Lisbon Declaration states that the family is the basic unit of society and as such should be strengthened. Many other international actions for youth development also aim to reinforce the connections between generations,” Xie said. “Family and society-related indicators are thus also considered in the YSDI. These involve marriage rate, fertility rate,total dependency ratio, and the Numbeo Safety Index,which measures relative feelings of safety in cities worldwide.”

The report said developing economies have made substantial efforts to promote employment and create opportunities for young people. As a result, some of them have pulled ahead of several developed economies and have laid a solid foundation for overall youth development. In the ranking of countries by measures of employment and opportunity, in 27 out of 30 leading countries, civic participation of young people was either ahead of or close to their overall YSDI ranking.

中国特色社会主义进入新时代，我国高等教育的地位作用、发展阶段、资源条件、支撑环境发生了重大变化，高等教育发展的基本矛盾发生了深刻转化。满足新时代对高等教育的迫切需求，要以习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想为指导，精准对标教育强国建设和“双一流”建设，实现内涵式发展，建成选择性更多、竞争力更强、特色更鲜明、公平度更高、对经济社会发展引领支撑作用更大的高等教育。党的建设的基本规律指明，新时代高等教育的发展迫切需要把党的政治建设摆在首位，坚持和完善党对高校的全面领导，为办好人民满意大学和建设教育强国提供坚强的政治思想保证和组织保证。

China received relatively high scores in the health and wellbeing, as well as civic participation domains. “The prevalence of anxiety disorders in the age group of 15-39 years and the drug abuse rate are low,” she said.

治疗前，两组CD3+、CD4+、CD8+、CD4+/CD8+比较，差异不具有统计学意义（P＞0.05）；治疗后，观察组患者的CD3+、CD4+、CD8+高于对照组，CD4+/CD8+低于对照组，差异具有统计学意义（P＜0.05）。见表1。

陈敦源《全宋词所收互见词考辨》：“此首当从宋人载籍《全芳备祖》作苏轼词。洪武本《草堂诗余》所收前后相接而无撰人姓氏之词,并非皆为同一人之作。”[10]277-282

China ranked ninth in civic participation, higher than many developed economies.Xie said this testifies to the notable progress China has made in fostering social inclusion and promoting the civic participation of its young people.

In addition, if compared with global rankings by GDP per capita and by the Human Development Index developed by the United Nations Development Programme,China’s YSDI ranking is ahead of both.

Chinese young people are ready to team up with their peers all around the world to build a community with a shared future for humanity and make the world a better place for all, the report concluded. BR