Is the Social Progress Index (SPI) a better tool to use than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to measure a country's general progress?

I think yes it is , Time has come to change paradigm from GDP to Social progress index. Even the statistics also proves to be on the same line. The countries with good GDP growth for last many years are doing badily in social progressive indicators. The GDP really don't capture the exact and real time situations in social sector, I believe More than GDP ,countries across the globe should formulate social progress index was a main tool to measure  the progress of nation.

GDP per capita and Social Progress Index (SPI) are highly correlated.Usually societies spend money and effort on things that matter most to its people. Across countries these are often the same things like better health and nutrition, cleaner air and water, good quality affordable education, a just society, good law and order etc. These are the same things that SPI measures. So more money per head should equate to higher SPI.If the above is true then we would expect richer countries to have higher SPI than poorer countries and marked rise in SPI as income rises.This is exactly what this year’s (2016) Social Progress Index Report finds (http://www.socialprogressimperative.org/publication/2016-social-progress-index-2/). It found correlation between SPI and log GDP per capita to be 0.89. One per cent increase in GDP per capita is associated with 0.11 point increase in SPICopying a graph from this year’s report that illustrates the above - There are exceptions like Saudi Arabia, Iraq.Iraq (and Congo etc) have low SPI due to armed conflicts for many years. Towards the higher end of income Saudi Arabia, Kuwait etc have low SPI because they treat nearly half their population poorly and their societies are inequitable by the standards of 21st century SPI index provider. So war torn countries will have poor SPI. Rich, repressive, absolute monarchies (or theocracies) with terrible minority and women rights, practicing public beheading, lashings and limb amputation of convicts will have low SPI. But we don’t really need SPI to tell us that.Barring these exceptions don’t you think there is a remarkable degree of correlation between money per head and SPI?Lastly, GDP has one major advantage - there is internationally recognized convention on how to measure it, national statistical agencies have skills in this area and it is relatively easy for them to publish GDP regularly that policy makers can use to base their decisions on.