U.N. Unveils 31-Metric Prosperity Dashboard as Push Grows to Look Beyond GDP

1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · May 26

The United Nations this month released a 31-metric dashboard meant to complement GDP with a broader picture of prosperity.
The framework groups indicators into four buckets—peace and human rights, sustainability, quality of life, and inequality—tracking measures such as conflict deaths per 100,000 people, the richest 1%'s wealth share, and whether people feel safe walking after dark.
The effort reflects long-running criticism that GDP counts output like timber harvests and hospital spending while missing environmental damage, health outcomes, and how wealth is distributed under repressive systems.
Set up last year, the U.N. commission produced a shorter tool than the data-heavy Sustainable Development Goals framework, and Secretary-General António Guterres urged countries to adopt it alongside GDP.

Beyond G.D.P., which nations will be the first to officially adopt the UN’s new blueprint for prosperity?

Will the UN’s new 31-metric dashboard create real change, or just allow nations to cherry-pick their successes?

How can subjective feelings like 'safety' be reliably measured and compared across vastly different global cultures?