More than half of the global population lives in countries that are weak and falling behind the rest of the world across four key sustainability measures: income equality, civil society, governance, and environment, according to a report on sustainable economic development recently released by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a global management consulting firm and advisor on business strategy.

The report is based on the firm's study of worldwide economic growth trends using BCG's Sustainable Economic Development Assessment (SEDA). The fact-based, comprehensive analysis measured the relative wellbeing of 149 countries and their performance in converting wealth to wellbeing along social and economic indicators.

This year's results highlight a worsening global gap, which raises questions about what is required to drive further sustainability improvements and what can be done to help those lagging performers catch up.

Following are the 10 countries that are lagging behind most in terms of their citizens' well-being with their current-level score and recent-progress score. The first one means overall well-being and the second one means the change in current-level date for the most recent seven-year period for which data is available.

  Niger

 

Current level score: 16.4

Recent progress score: 74.5