Introducing a New Composite Index for Ranking of Developing Countries Based on Wellbeing

Wellbeing as a multidimensional concept has been noticed by many economists and politicians in recent years. In most studies, only the combination of non-economic indicators have been used in order to measure wellbeing while constructing the indicator that includes all geographic, economic and human aspects can help us to study the countries development procedure. The aim of this study is constructing a wellbeing indicator for all developing countries with regard aforementioned aspects.In this study, we attempt to construct a composite indicator based on 8 sub indexes by using factor-analysis and objective method. This indicator has been calculated annually for 88 developing countries for the period 2000-2008.Based on the results, African countries have the lowest wellbeing score among selected developing countries. Also the results show an improvement of wellbeing indicator in Turkey, China and Brazil in recent years. In addition, this indicator had been increased for Iran during aforesaid period, but between the four-year periods 2005-2008, the rate of this growth process has been decreased.