The index launched a new indicator that also tracks each country’s response to the climate crisis by measuring changes in greenhouse gas emissions over time.
BERKELEY, CA - New Zealand for the third consecutive year ranked as the most inclusive country in the world, while Hawaii also kept its streak going, placing first place for the seventh consecutive year as the most inclusive state in the country. That’s according to the latest Inclusiveness Index published Wednesday, October 23, by the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley.
Produced annually since 2016, the Inclusiveness Index ranks US states and countries by their levels of inclusion using a number of indicators including in terms of race, religion, gender (sex), sexual orientation (LGBTQ+), disability, and the general population. Those indicators are assessed through measures that include outgroup violence; political representation; income inequality; anti-discrimination laws; rates of incarceration; immigration and asylum policies, and environmental impact.
Similar to past years, globally, New Zealand came in first, Portugal maintained its spot from last year at second place, followed by Norway, Iceland and Sweden. Historically, Northern European countries known for their strong social safety net programs regularly rank high in the Index.
The Netherlands previously topped the global rankings from 2016 to 2020, and regularly placed at or near the top five countries since then. But this year the Netherlands ranked seventh, its lowest placing since the index was launched.
This year's rankings placed Yemen at the bottom of the global list followed by Iran, Libya, Afghanistan and Brunei.
“Our indicators reflect cultural norms, policies, laws, and institutional practices rather than economic strength or tax base capacity,” said OBI Research Director Stephen Menendian. “The index indicators are noneconomic, and not proxies for governmental expenditures or investments in human capital, but rather reflect legal and institutional regimes.”
Seeing changes over time
Now in its ninth year of publication, the Inclusiveness Index recently moved from its original PDF format to an interactive table which allows users to switch between states and countries and sort them based on any of the measures considered in the rankings.
There is also a filter to select between years, and reports from 2016 through 2020 are still available on the page as PDFs. The rankings for each year of the study can be found on this sortable table. This allows viewers to see how rankings have changed over time.
And while the number of countries included in the global index changes each year based on availability of data, this year's Inclusiveness Index used a new and more comprehensive dataset that included 152 countries; 23 more countries than the previous year and the most countries ever captured in the index.
As part of the index, OBI also launched an indicator for a country's response to the climate crisis by considering its change in greenhouse gas emissions, including land use, land-use change, and forestry. This measure applies only to the global rankings.
Countries that topped that climate indicator included Venezuela with the highest reduction of greenhouse gasses (-46%) followed by Estonia (-33%), Lebanon (-29%) and Angola (-25%). However, countries Ghana doubled its greenhouse gas emissions in the last five years followed by Vietnam who increased by 34%, Libya (+32%) and Brunei (+22%)
The global rankings also include refugee and immigration policies. The more welcoming the country is in terms of openness to refugees and immigrants, the better its ranking is.
“These policies are reflective of the values and perspectives of the society vis-à-vis the marginalized group and how welcoming or tolerant the dominant group is of out-groups,” said OBI Equity Metrics Program Director Samir Gambhir. “Strains of nativism and xenophobia tend to not only reflect the limitations towards the openness of a society with respect to the immigrant group, but also the degree of inclusivity within a society."
US incarceration rates keep it midpack
Since the first inclusiveness index was released eight years ago, the US has steadily dropped in the rankings from 23rd in 2016, to consistently placing midpack. This year the US ranked 79th, two positions lower than last year. It is the lowest the US has placed in the index since it ranked 80th in 2020.
The US continues to perform well on inclusion in terms of disability (71), inclusivity for LGBTQ+ (16), and religion (46); but ranks poorly on race (138), and gender (109) indicators. Political inclusion of ethnic minorities has trended downward, and continues to deteriorate in the country’s data said, OBI researcher Eve Liao.
The US also continues to rank high in mass incarceration, 5th in the rate of incarceration and number 1 in the total number of people incarcerated.
“Differential rates of incarceration across subgroups, specifically, serve as an indirect measure of cultural perceptions of those subgroups and their relative social position within a society,” said Liao. “For especially marginalized social groups, criminal law is a tool of social control that may result in higher rates of incarceration and punishment. This is why differential rates of incarceration by group are an indicator of inclusivity within the Index.”
California sees a marked dip in rankings
The results of this year's US state rankings are similar to past years, where some states may gain or drop a couple positions, many have remained in the same place.
Behind Hawaii, Nevada and Maryland rounded out the top three, respectively. These states, along with Vermont, consistently rank high in the annual study. Lousianna ranked least inclusive for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Mississippi and Alabama. These are the same spots they held in last year's study.
California came in 15th, dropping 11 spots from its 4th place showing last year. Golden State saw ranking dips in disability and sexual orientation bias in particular.
But California saw a drop in index rankings mainly due to the General Population domain, said OBI Equity Metrics Program Director Samir Gambhir. That domain showed California rates have increased from 0.19 hate crimes per 100,000 people in 2023 (ranked second best after Florida), to 5.31 per 100,000 in 2024, 8th worst in the country.
“Out-group violence, such as hate crimes, is a direct indicator of group marginalization and oppression,” said Elsadig Elsheikh, director of OBI’s Global Justice Program. “Disproportionate violence suffered by discrete social groups reflects prejudice toward those groups as well as group vulnerability.”
For media inquiries contact Ivan Natividad at ivan.natividad@berkeley.edu, 510-325-3349
