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52 The Network Society
Table 2.13 International comparison of social well-being indicators
Advanced
Finland USA Singapore Portugal Spain Italy Czech Rep. Slovakia Economies
Combined rate of
students of the
first, second and 106
third cycles 1
(1) 92 87 93 92 82 78 74 94
Functional literacy 89.6
(%) 2
(2) 79.3 92.5 52 – – 84.3 – 83
Life expectancy at
birth (years) 1
77.9 77.0 78.0 76.1 79.2 78.7 75.3 73.6 78
Health care
coverage (%) 3
100 82 – 100 100 100 – – n.d.
Number of working
hours per annum
per person 7
1713 1792 – 1676 1800 1591 1972 1814 1636
Ratio of the 20%
richest to the
20% poorest 4
3.8 (3) 8.4 9.7 8.0 5.4 6.5 3.5 4.0 5.8
Percentage of
population below
the poverty line 5
3.8 (4) 14.1 – 21 – – – – 10.6
Gini coefficient 6
26.9 40.8 42.5 38.5 32.5 36 25.4 25.8 28.57
Source: 1 Adapted from Castells and Himanen (2002), except data for Portugal, which were taken from the UNDP Human Development Report
2001; 2 Adapted from Castells and Himanen (2002), except data for Portugal, which were taken from the UNDP Human Development Report
2003, calculated on the basis of the “Lacking functional literacy skills” indicator, http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2003/pdf/hdr03_HDI.pdf; 3
Adapted from Castells and Himanen (2002), except data for Portugal. Given the existence of a universal National Health Service, one can presume
total coverage of the Portuguese population; 4 Adapted from Castells and Himanen 2002, except data for Portugal, taken from
http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/wdrpoverty/; 5 Adapted from Castells and Himanen 2002. The value for Portugal was taken from Capucha
(2004), Desafios da Pobreza (The Challenges of Poverty), Lisbon, ISCTE, p.131 (Doctoral Thesis). Relative poverty measurement referenced to a
threshold of 60% of the average of the income available to households; 6 Data for all countries based on UNDP 2004.