2016 Global Youth Development Index: Results and Analysis Chapter 2 2016 Global Youth Development Index: Results and Analysis Highlights • The all-round development of young people is improving in most parts of the world, though at a very slow pace. Of the 183 countries considered in the index, 142 recorded improvements in their YDI scores between 2010 and 2015, with gains being the largest in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Central America and Caribbean, in that order. In the same period, youth development has remained almost static in Russia and Eurasia, and the MENA region. • Despite making significant progress in the last five years, Sub-Saharan Africa continues to have the lowest levels of youth development in the world, preceded by South Asia and the MENA region. All of the ten lowest-ranked countries in the 2016 YDI are from Sub-Saharan Africa. As a region, North America has the highest level of youth development, followed by Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Central America and Caribbean, and Russia and Eurasia. Except Australia and Japan, all other countries ranked in the top ten in the YDI are from Europe. • Of the five domains of the YDI, Civic Participation and Political Participation recorded the largest improvements between 2010 and 2015 at a global level, followed by Employment and Opportunity. Education and Health and Wellbeing registered the lowest improvement. • Youth development in the Commonwealth registered larger gains than the global average. Collectively, there was a 5 per cent increase in the average YDI score of Commonwealth countries between 2010 and 2015. Aside from Pakistan, every country in the Commonwealth either maintained or improved its level of youth development from 2010 to 2015. • The three countries showing the greatest decline in their YDI scores between 2010 and 2015 were Pakistan, Angola and Haiti. Young people in all three have been severely affected by civil unrest, armed conflict and/or natural disasters. • Deep inequalities in levels of youth development persist among countries, with the largest gaps being in the domains of Education, and Health and Wellbeing. For both these domains, the average score of a very high YDI country is nearly twice that of a low YDI country: – Nearly three-quarters of the world’s youth population is living in countries that fall in the low and medium YDI categories, and nearly one-half of them are in the Commonwealth. Nine out of every ten young people in \ 27