I have explained the concept of Spiral Dynamics in here. I find the concept fascinating and extremely useful to study the evolution of societies in history, but also to understand the current socio-political situation in modern countries and forecast how societies are going to evolve.
The chart is an oversimplification as people within a same country move up the colour spiral at their own pace and settle at one level based on their specific needs. Not everyone in an orange dominated society will reach the orange vMeme. In fact, in most developed countries today a good part of the population (around 30-50%) is still in the blue (Order). That includes a majority of people who work at lower levels of the administration/bureaucracy, in the police and army, for religious organisations, but also lots of school teachers, hospital staff, clerks, secretaries, and anyone working in a very structured and hierarchical environment following rules from above (a boss, the state, one's religion).
People in the orange vMeme (Prosperity) are more self-driven, independent, competitive and ambitious. They include entrepreneurs, investors, bankers, stock brokers/traders, managers, directors, lawyers, realtors, accountants, consultants, advisers, marketers, sales people, programmers, software developers, etc. They make up 20-35% of the working population in developed countries.
To assess how much a society has adopted the values of the green vMeme, I am going to give scores relating to ecology, fair trade, and collaborative/peer production, social progress, gender equality and LGBT acceptance.
I have considered other variables, but either could not find the data or they had to be rejected for some reasons.
The percentage of not-for-profit organisations in a country, or even better, the percentage of people working for such organisations, would surely reflect the share of the population that has adopted green vMeme values. However I could not find any international comparison for that.
The amount of donations to charities for environmental protection per capita would also be correlated with the green vMeme, especially if adjusted for GDP per capita, so that poorer countries are not unfairly disadvantaged with regard to the amount of money donated. An international comparison would ideally need to take into account the money donated by country to all environmental charities worldwide. This is because most large charities are located in a handful of countries like the USA, the UK or Germany, and some charities may be more popular in some countries than others. I could only find data for Greenpeace, but as some countries were missing and since including only Greenpeace would skew the data in favour of countries where Greenpeace is better known, I decided not to include the ranking in the overall green vMeme score below.
The legality of cannabis in a country may indicate that it is more tolerant and relatistic, two green vMeme values. Nonetheless it is mostly a political issue that can change very quickly, as it did in some US states. The fact that it became legal in Nevada doesn't mean that people in Nevada in general are more green. Nowadays the only country where cannabis is legal in Europe is Georgia, which is certainly not a sign that it is high on the green vMeme. Cannabis used to be legal in countries such as India and Japan because it was used in religion (Hinduism in India and Shintoism in Japan's case). If anything cannabis is more likely to be accepted by the purple vMeme.
Military spendings probably go down in countries dominated by green vMeme values. Yet it really depends on a country's geopolitical situation, such as the threat posed by its neighbours. Finland and Japan may have more reason to keep sufficient military spendings than Iceland or Portugal. In any case, a strong military is a sign of the blue vMeme and was included as a variable for that vMeme (here).
The Gini coefficient indicates the level of income inequality or wealth inequality within a nation. It may seem that countries with a low Gini coefficient are more egalitarian. However, the Gini coefficient represents the actual state of economic inequality within a society, but what people wish for them to be. If a country had a large percentage of the population that valued egalitarianism it still wouldn't have much effect on how much other people earned. For example, inequaltities in the United States did not rise steadily from the 1980's to the present because Americans wanted to become less egalitarian or politicians took intentional measures to create vast disparities between the rich and the poor. The market did that, through globalisation, delocalisation, robotisation, etc. More socially minded countries can increase tax and redistribution of wealth, but that is not necessarily a sign of green vMeme values. The communists took that to the extreme and they were as blue as it get in the Spiral Dynamics.
1. Consumption of Fairtrade products by country
Country
Fairtrade retail (in €/capita - 2015)
GDP per capita 2017
Balanced
Fairtrade score
United Kingdom
33.9
39,758
8.526585844
85.27
Ireland
54.2
69,604
7.786908798
77.87
Switzerland
57.7
80,101
7.2034057
72.03
Finland
31.7
45,670
6.94109919
69.41
Sweden
36.1
54,043
6.679866033
66.80
Austria
21.6
47,718
4.526593738
45.27
Denmark
18.1
57,533
3.146020545
31.46
Netherlands
13.2
48,754
2.707470156
27.07
Germany
12
44,976
2.668089648
26.68
Belgium
10.2
43,289
2.356256786
23.56
Norway
15.6
75,295
2.07185072
20.72
Luxembourg
19.2
106,806
1.797651817
17.98
France
6.7
38,415
1.744110374
17.44
Canada
7.6
44,974
1.689865255
16.90
Australia
9.6
57,613
1.666290594
16.66
Portugal
2.7
18,882
1.42993327
14.30
Estonia
2.5
19,793
1.263072804
12.63
Italy
1.6
32,747
0.4885943751
4.89
United States
2.9
60,055
0.4828906835
4.83
Czechia
0.8
20,326
0.3935845715
3.94
Latvia
0.4
15,625
0.256
2.56
Spain
0.6
28,354
0.2116103548
2.12
Lithuania
0.3
16,450
0.1823708207
1.82
Japan
0.6
38,220
0.1569858713
1.57
Slovakia
0.2
17,552
0.1139471285
1.14
Hong Kong
0.4
61,000
0.06557377049
0.66
South Korea
0.1
30,025
0.03330557868
0.33
The 'balanced score' column is the € spent on Fairtrade products per $10,000 of GDP.
Source of Fairtrade retail data (for 2015), except for New Zealand, which uses this data. Countries that aren't listed above have consumption of Fairtrade products under 0.1€ per person.
The GDP per capita (nominal) figures are from the United Nations for 2017.
When it comes to ethical consumption, the UK, Ireland top the list, followed by Germanic countries.
2. Peer Production : Wikipedia users & articles per 1000 speakers
Language
Wikipedia users
No of Speakers
Users per 1000 speakers
Articles/1000 speakers
Average users+articles/1000
Wikipedia score
Swedish
735,785
9,197,090
80.00193539
405.6
242.8009677
24.28
Icelandic
74,322
330,000
225.2181818
151.8
188.5090909
18.85
Norwegian
604,819
4,453,000
135.8228161
215.5
175.661408
17.57
Estonian
141,859
1,105,400
128.3327302
190.2
159.2663651
15.93
Welsh
61,943
965,000
64.18963731
135.7
99.94481865
9.99
Hebrew
658,170
5,302,770
124.1181496
50.8
87.45907479
8.75
Finnish
454,977
5,392,180
84.37719067
90.4
87.38859534
8.74
Slovenian
192,050
2,085,160
92.10324388
80.9
86.50162194
8.65
Dutch
1,082,965
21,944,690
49.34975158
92.1
70.72487579
7.07
Catalan
361,022
7,200,000
50.14194444
90.4
70.27097222
7.03
Macedonian
89,303
1,407,810
63.43398612
75.6
69.51699306
6.95
Latvian
92,267
1,552,260
59.44042879
65.9
62.6702144
6.27
Danish
384,044
5,522,490
69.541819
47.1
58.3209095
5.83
Galician
109,048
2,355,000
46.30488323
70
58.15244161
5.82
Lithuanian
144,747
3,001,860
48.21910416
66.7
57.45955208
5.75
Serbian
268,347
8,957,906
29.95644295
71
50.47822147
5.05
English
39,433,068
505,000,000
78.08528317
12.1
45.09264158
4.51
Scots
72,983
1,500,000
48.65533333
38.35
43.50266667
4.35
Spanish
5,894,754
74,980,460
78.6172024
3.4
41.0086012
4.10
Slovak
190,884
5,187,740
36.79521333
45.1
40.94760666
4.09
French
3,837,876
74,980,460
51.1850154
29.8
40.4925077
4.05
Croatian
240,709
5,752,090
41.84722423
38.1
39.97361211
4.00
German
3,503,083
78,245,280
44.7705344
31.3
38.0352672
3.80
Hungarian
450,671
12,606,130
35.75014695
37.5
36.62507348
3.66
Czech
503,416
13,373,480
37.64285736
34.2
35.92142868
3.59
Bulgarian
273,751
8,157,770
33.55708729
32.4
32.97854365
3.30
Polish
1,044,638
38,663,780
27.01851707
36.7
31.85925854
3.19
Italian
2,001,890
63,655,047
31.44903813
25.4
28.42451906
2.84
Irish
43,814
1,930,000
22.7015544
27.4
25.0507772
2.51
Romanian
527,008
23,782,990
22.15903047
17.2
19.67951523
1.97
Malay
258,192
15,848,500
16.29125785
21.6
18.94562892
1.89
Greek
307,634
13,432,940
22.90146461
13.4
18.1507323
1.82
Russian
2,793,088
167,332,230
16.69187102
9.8
13.24593551
1.32
Japanese
1,660,074
125,000,000
13.280592
9.7
11.490296
1.15
Turkish
1,200,107
70,805,930
16.94924422
5
10.97462211
1.10
Portuguese
2,432,890
220,000,000
11.05859091
4.7
7.879295455
0.79
Korean
634,118
77,166,230
8.21755838
6.5
7.35877919
0.74
Arabic
1,893,097
315,421,300
6.001804571
3.3
4.650902285
0.47
Cantonese
203,609
62,221,560
3.272322327
1.4
2.336161163
0.23
Chinese
2,967,583
1,197,294,060
2.478574896
0.9
1.689287448
0.17
The main problem with these statistics is that they are by language and not by country. It is fine for most countries, but not for languages spoken in many countries like English, Spanish and Portuguese. That's why I added regional languages like Basque, Catalan, Galician, Welsh, Irish and Scots to get a better idea of the local European production in these countries.
3. Ecology score
Country
Recycling rate (2018)
CO2 emissions per capita (2018)
Ecology score (Recycling - CO2)
Germany
67.3
9.1
58.2
Slovenia
58.9
7.5
51.4
Austria
57.7
8.2
49.5
Switzerland
52.5
4.8
47.7
Lithuania
52.5
5
47.5
Netherlands
55.9
9.5
46.4
Belgium
54.6
9.2
45.4
South Korea
59
13.6
45.4
Denmark
49.9
5.8
44.1
Italy
49.8
5.8
44
Sweden
45.8
4.5
41.3
Australia
58
16.8
41.2
France
44
5
39
United Kingdom
44.1
5.6
38.5
Finland
42.3
8.8
33.5
Luxembourg
50.1
16.9
33.2
Ireland
40.4
7.7
32.7
Hungary
37.4
5.4
32
Norway
40.7
9.4
31.3
Spain
36
6
30
Slovakia
36.3
7
29.3
Poland
34.3
8.8
25.5
Bulgaria
31.5
6.3
25.2
Czechia
34.5
10.4
24.1
Portugal
28.9
5.1
23.8
Latvia
25.2
4.1
21.1
Croatia
25.3
4.7
20.6
United States
35.2
16.1
19.1
Estonia
28
14
14
Iceland
25.8
12.1
13.7
Greece
18.9
6.5
12.4
Japan
21
9.4
11.6
Israel
19
7.9
11.1
Cyprus
16.1
6.3
9.8
Peru
11
1.8
9.2
Costa Rica
10
1.8
8.2
Canada
24
16.1
7.9
Turkey
11.5
4.4
7.1
Romania
11.1
4.1
7
Argentina
11
4.7
6.3
Uruguay
8
2.8
5.2
Malta
6.5
3.5
3
Mexico
5
3.8
1.2
Montenegro
5.5
6.3
-0.8
Brazil
1
2.4
-1.4
Chile
1
4.6
-3.6
North Macedonia
0
3.9
-3.9
Russia
7
12.1
-5.1
Serbia
0.3
6.3
-6
Bosnia & Herzegovina
0
7.8
-7.8
China
30
7.2
22.8
Taiwan
55
10.3
44.7
Singapore
59
4.3
54.7
Qatar
1
44
-43
Kuwait
11
23.9
-12.9
Saudi Arabia
1
18.6
-17.6
New Zealand
58
7.1
50.9
Hong Kong
30
5.7
24.3
Malaysia
21
8
13
It was not easy to choose data that would reflect the environmental awareness, concern and action of individual citizens, as opposed to governments and companies.
I wanted to include solar panels penetration by country, but that would have given an unfair advantage to sunnier countries where PV panels are more useful and profitable. What's more, I could not find data on the percentage of residential homes equipped with PV, as opposed to companies and industries.
Likewise the total renewable energy produced in a country per capita is not a good indicator as it depends on government policies (just a few people) and the natural resources and opportunities available in each country, rather than actual desire to switch to renewable energy.
I wish I could have added the percentage of people donating to environmental charities (as opposed to all charities, which may be motivated by religion or other concerns in the blue vMeme), but I could not find such data.
That's why I had to settle for municipal waste recycling rates and CO2 emissions per capita. Nevertheless combining the two gives a surprising realistic score of environmental concern by country.
4. Social Progress & Gender Equality
Country
Social Progress
Gender Inequality
Social score
Norway
90.95
0.044
86.55
Switzerland
89.89
0.037
86.19
Denmark
90.09
0.04
86.09
Sweden
89.45
0.04
85.45
Finland
89.56
0.05
84.56
Netherlands
88.31
0.041
84.21
Iceland
89.29
0.057
83.59
France
87.79
0.051
82.69
Belgium
86.77
0.045
82.27
Canada
88.81
0.083
80.51
Germany
88.84
0.084
80.44
Spain
87.47
0.074
80.07
Luxembourg
87.66
0.078
79.86
South Korea
85.61
0.058
79.81
Austria
86.4
0.073
79.1
Portugal
87.12
0.081
79.02
Slovenia
85.8
0.069
78.9
Italy
85.69
0.069
78.79
Ireland
87.97
0.093
78.67
Japan
88.34
0.099
78.44
Australia
88.02
0.103
77.72
Singapore
83.23
0.065
76.73
United Kingdom
87.98
0.119
76.08
New Zealand
88.93
0.133
75.63
New Zealand
88.93
0.133
75.63
Estonia
83.98
0.091
74.88
Cyprus
83.14
0.086
74.54
Israel
81.44
0.1
71.44
Czech Republic
84.36
0.137
70.66
Greece
82.48
0.122
70.28
Poland
81.25
0.12
69.25
Lithuania
81.3
0.124
68.9
Croatia
79.21
0.122
67.01
United States
83.62
0.182
65.42
Latvia
80.42
0.169
63.52
Malta
82.63
0.195
63.13
Slovakia
80.43
0.19
61.43
Serbia
71.59
0.161
55.49
North Macedonia
68.92
0.145
54.42
Bulgaria
76.17
0.218
54.37
Hungary
78.77
0.258
52.97
Costa Rica
80.65
0.285
52.15
Chile
80.02
0.288
51.22
Uruguay
77.77
0.275
50.27
Qatar
69.37
0.202
49.17
China
64.54
0.163
48.24
Malaysia
74.17
0.274
46.77
Russia
69.71
0.255
44.21
Romania
74.81
0.316
43.21
Saudi Arabia
63.95
0.224
41.55
Argentina
76.86
0.354
41.46
Mexico
71.51
0.334
38.11
Turkey
67.49
0.305
36.99
Brazil
72.87
0.386
34.27
Peru
71.31
0.381
33.21
The reflection of egalitarian, fairness and equal opportunities can be encapsulated in a combination of two indices. The first is the Social Progress Index, a complex index that takes into account basic human needs, health, environment, education, access to information, personal rights, personal freedoms and choices, social inclusiveness of LGBT and ethnic minorities, equal opportunities by gender and socioeconomic status, etc. The second is the United Nations' Gender Inequality Index, a negative score which I deducted (after multiplying by 100 as it was rated on 1 and not 100) to obtain an overall social score. I know that gender equality was already included in the social progress index, but I felt it was important to give it more weight as gender equality is a very important value of the green vMeme.
5. LGBT Acceptance
The 5th dimension is social acceptance of LGBT people. It is based on a 2019 global report of the same name by the Williams Institute at UCLA. The data is for the period 2014-2017.
Country
UCLA 2017
Score in percent
Iceland
8.9
89
Netherlands
8.6
86
Canada
8.2
82
Norway
8.2
82
Spain
8.1
81
Belgium
7.9
79
Denmark
7.9
79
Ireland
7.9
79
Sweden
7.9
79
Luxembourg
7.7
77
United Kingdom
7.7
77
Malta
7.6
76
Uruguay
7.6
76
New Zealand
7.5
75
Finland
7.4
74
Germany
7.4
74
Switzerland
7.4
74
Australia
7.3
73
United States
7.2
72
France
7.1
71
Argentina
6.9
69
Austria
6.8
68
Brazil
6.8
68
Chile
6.7
67
Hong Kong
6.5
65
Italy
6.4
64
Portugal
6.4
64
Mexico
6.3
63
Costa Rica
6.1
61
Czechia
6
60
Slovenia
5.9
59
Taiwan
5.7
57
Israel
5.4
54
Peru
5.3
53
Croatia
5.2
52
Cyprus
5.1
51
Greece
5
50
Slovakia
5
50
Estonia
4.9
49
Hungary
4.9
49
Japan
4.9
49
South Korea
4.9
49
Poland
4.8
48
Singapore
4.8
48
Bulgaria
4.6
46
Latvia
4.4
44
Turkey
4.4
44
Serbia
4.2
42
Malaysia
4.2
42
Lithuania
4.1
41
Romania
4.1
41
China
3.9
39
Kuwait
3.5
35
Russia
3.4
34
Qatar
3.2
32
North Macedonia
3
30
Saudi Arabia
3
30
Overall score
I gave a score on 100 for the first four categories, made an average in percent then added a custom Wikipedia score to the total as a bonus. In other words: (ecology + social + fairtrade + LGBT)/4 + Wikipedia.
Unsurprisingly Sweden tops the ranking for all values associated with the green vMeme. Note that no data was available for Fairtrade for countries like Iceland, Malta, Israel or Singapore, so their overall score is a bit different than what it should be.
The levels of the spiral are about values and mindset. Even though the 6th level, or green vMeme, corresponds to a postmodern or post-capitalist society, the five factors taken into account in my assessment are purely about values and not wealth or GDP per capita. That's why countries like Slovenia, Estonia and Lithuania can outperform economic powerhouses like the United States or Australia. In fact Luxembourg, which has the highest GDP per capita in the Western world, only gets an average score here. Countries obsessed with making money are often dominated by the orange vMeme (5th level). With too many people stuck in the orange mindset, it's only logical that fewer move on to the green level of consciousness, which is about quality of life rather than getting rich at all costs.
