Short, John RennieVélez-Hagan, JustinDubots, Leah2018-10-162018-10-162019-05-01Short, John Rennie; Vélez-Hagan, Justin; Dubots, Leah; What Do Global Metrics Tell Us About The World?; Social Sciences 8,5 (2019); https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/8/5/136http://hdl.handle.net/11603/11566https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci8050136There are now a wide variety of global metrics. To find the degree of overlap between these different measures, we employ a principal components analysis (PCA) to 15 indices across 145 countries. Our results demonstrate that the most important underlying dimension highlights that economic development and social progress go hand in hand with state stability. The results are used to produce categorical divisions of the world. The threefold division identifies a world composed of what we describe and map as Rich, Poor and Middle countries. A five-group classification provided a more nuanced categorization described as; The Very Rich, Free and Stable, Affluent and Free, Upper Middle, Lower Middle, and Poor and Not Free.16 pagesen-USThis item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)global indicesglobal metricsglobal societynew global geographiesprincipal components analysisText