Nicholas Kristof writes in the New York Times:

A newly released global index finds that America falls short, along with other powerful countries, on what matters most: assuring a high quality of life for ordinary citizens.

The Social Progress Index for 2015 ranks the United States 16th in the world. We may thump our chests and boast that we’re No. 1, and in some ways we are. But, in important ways, we lag. …

The top countries in the 2015 Social Progress Index are Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Iceland, New Zealand and Canada. Of the 133 countries rated, Central African Republic is last, just after Chad and Afghanistan.

Top 16 Countries Rankings in the 2015 Social Progress Index.

1 Norway 2 Sweden 3 Switzerland 4 Iceland 5 New Zealand 6 Canada 7 Finland 8 Denmark 9 Netherlands 10 Australia 11 Britain 12 Ireland 13 Austria 14 Germany 15 Japan 16 United States

Blue-Eyed Privilege is clearly to blame for the top of this list being dominated, Japan excepted, by countries whose founding stocks tend to have much fairer eyes than the world average.