Tim za socijalno uključivanje i smanjenje siromaštva

The Social Development Index is a composite index enabling the comparison of the achieved degree of social development among towns and municipalities in the Republic of Serbia. The Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit initiated the drafting of the methodology and development of the application aiming to present this tool to all interested users, from decision makers and policy creators, to independent researchers and analysts.

The Social Development Index provides the option of comparing quality of life by towns and municipalities, sortable, depending on individual priorities, according to nine areas: demography, economic activity, education, social protection, healthcare, housing, safety, social participation and vulnerable groups and human rights.

The Social Development Index of Towns and Municipalities shows values from 1 to 100, with higher index values indicating better living conditions in a given local self-government unit. The index was created by aggregating 41 indicators in 9 areas, adapting the direction of certain indicators. In other words, if a given phenomenon negatively impacts the quality of life, its inverse value was taken. Since the indicators used were given in different units of measure, through normalization all were adjusted to a range of 1 to 100, in order to form a unified social development index of towns and municipalities. The application provides the option of selecting data shown on a graph. Depending on the needs of the user, the normalized, or original values of data items can be presented.

The index will be updated with new data once per year, with the option of improving and adding new indicators, as they are developed and made accessible at the municipal level. It covers all towns and municipalities in the Republic of Serbia (including all city municipalities separately). The application of the Social Development Index is optimized for use on all modern browsers, as well as mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) independent of their operating system. The web application is optimized to work on even the slowest internet connections, making it accessible to a wide audience.

In addition to the regular updating and analysis of the results given, the Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Unit aims to continuously improve and adjust the methodology, as the availability and quality of indicators change. We hereby invite you to explore the Social Development Index at www.socijalnoukljucivanje.gov.rs/indeks/en and share your comments and suggestions for improvement by e-mail to lidija.kuzmanov@gov.rs.