Global Prosperity and Uneven Belonging: Five development objectives and a 136-country assessment of reported discrimination

This paper develops an international comparative assessment of economic and social achievement from the perspective of the Economics of Belonging. The framework evaluates development through five interconnected but analytically distinct objectives: economic growth, macroeconomic stability, income distribution, human capabilities, and social and institutional belonging. The study compares global benchmarks with twenty selected countries and examines five observable dimensions of belonging: institutional access, perceived neighbor care, perceived government care, reported discrimination, and support available from family or friends. Its principal empirical extension analyzes reported discrimination across 136 countries and territories, drawing on the Lloyd’s Register Foundation World Risk Poll 2025, the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, and the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project, Version 16. The paper introduces a statistical standardization of reported discrimination based on national income and freedom of expression, employing fractional-logit estimation and alternative robustness specifications. The analysis finds that the population-weighted reported discrimination rate of 24.10% in the matched sample becomes approximately 24.34% after standardization. However, country-level adjustments can be considerably larger, and the estimated income relationship is sensitive to population weighting. The findings emphasize that differences in reported discrimination may reflect both underlying discriminatory experiences and the institutional and social conditions under which such experiences are recognized and disclosed. More broadly, the study demonstrates that economic prosperity does not automatically generate institutional inclusion, interpersonal support, perceived governmental concern, or social recognition. The Economics of Belonging therefore offers a multidimensional framework for evaluating development beyond conventional income-based measures. Data and replication The research uses World Risk Poll 2025, World Development Indicators, and V-Dem Version 16. The principal database and replication materials for The Economics of Belonging: Measuring Economic and Social Achievement Across Nations are available at DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.23603825. A supplementary replication package accompanies the present article and documents the expanded discrimination analysis, model specifications, country-level results, and robustness exercises.