Muscat – Oman has leapfrogged to 33rd rank in the 2023 Global Youth Development Index, moving up 19 places from 52nd in the last index compiled in 2020. The sultanate performs well in the domains of Employment and Opportunity, and Peace and Security, ranking 15th and ninth respectively. 

The Global Youth Development Index (YDI), a collaboration between the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Institute for Economics and Peace, assesses youth well-being and empowerment across 183 countries, including 50 of the 56 Commonwealth countries.

It covers six domains of youth development: Education, Employment and Opportunity, Equality and Inclusion, Health and Wellbeing, Peace and Security, and Political and Civic Participation. Changes in 27 indicators across the six domains were tracked over a 12-year period from 2010 to 2022. The 2023 YDI reflects data till the previous year.

In the Equality and Inclusion domain, Oman  ranked 20th, 52nd in Education, 119th in Health and Wellbeing, and 104th in Political and Civic Participation. 

In the GCC, UAE leads ranked 26th, followed by Bahrain at 32nd, Qatar 33rd, Kuwait 40th and Saudi Arabia 46th.

Globally, Singapore had the highest level of youth development in the 2023 YDI, followed by Denmark, Portugal, Iceland and Slovenia. Afghanistan had the lowest level, followed by Central African Republic, Niger, Chad and Somalia.

Of the 183 countries included in the index, 166 – or 90.7% – recorded improvements over the 12-year period.

The five countries recording the greatest improvements from 2010 to 2022 were Haiti, Côte d’Ivoire, Myanmar, Indonesia and Burkina Faso.

Niger, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Angola recorded the largest deteriorations.

On average, the top five most improved countries saw their scores increase by 13%, while the five largest fallers saw an average deterioration of 4%.

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