Dear friends,

We are pleased to close out this year with the release of the latest edition of our Haas Institute Inclusiveness Index.

Sexual violence against women, access to water, and the continued exclusion of refugees and immigrants were among the most pressing challenges facing the world in 2018. The varied responses to these challenges by states—both in the US and globally—contributed greatly to their inclusivity designations in our 2018 Index.

Our Inclusiveness Index is a report released annually that ranks nations and US states based on their levels of inclusion and exclusion, with a focus on the marginalization or inclusion of non-majority groups.

In the 2018 Index, 21 nations improved their designation of “inclusiveness” while the rankings of 10 nations fell below their bracket from the previous year. Since our first Index in 2016, the United States has fallen from its spot in the the “most inclusive” group of nations to the middle group of countries included in this report, trailing behind Nicaragua, Senegal, and Colombia, respectively.

This year we also released a new interactive map that can be toggled between a worldwide and US view of inclusivity for each of the three years we've released the Index.

See where your country or state ranked here. Read the press release here.

Key Global Findings

• The 21 nations that improved their inclusivity designation include Albania, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Honduras, and Vietnam, and others.  
• The 10 nations that fell in their designation include Ivory Coast, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, India, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Switzerland, and Uganda. 
• Since 2016, the only nation to move three categories in any direction was Thailand, which fell three categories between 2016 and 2017 and remains where it landed.

Key US Findings

• 27 states earned the same designation they had in our 2017 Index. 
• 23 states changed positions with the most dramatic being Delaware, Florida, New Mexico, Massachusetts, and Idaho. Idaho fell three categories from the highest level of inclusivity in 2017 to a ranking of low in 2018. Delaware, New Mexico, and Massachusetts fell two categories. In contrast, Florida rose two categories from low to high inclusivity. 
• 12 states improved their designation: Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming.