Abstract

International comparison under a common benchmark is the central promise of the UN Beyond-GDP framework, which is designed to be country-owned and universally applicable. Because the framework leaves indicator selection to national priorities, however, it does not by itself tell a country which of its dimensions are weak, how its pattern of development differs from that of comparators, or which instruments are available at its stage of development. This paper develops country profiling and pattern identification for that purpose.
Using the WIS framework, we compute development profiles for 177 countries over 2010–2024 and identify several well-being development patterns by clustering on dimension scores and the balance among dimensions. Patterns are distinguished not only by level but by structure: some high-income countries combine high aggregate well-being with persistent weaknesses in social cohesion or long-term capacity; some economies at lower income levels display comparative advantages in specific dimensions; least developed countries concentrate multiple deprivations.
China's trajectory illustrates the diagnostic use of the framework. Its composite well-being index rises from 51.73 to 72.23 between 2010 and 2024, with the global rank moving from 12th to 1st; the coefficient of variation across dimensions falls from 0.3784 to 0.1853 (a 51.0 per cent reduction) and the cross-dimension Gini coefficient from 0.160 to 0.090 (43.9 per cent). Persistent gaps between objective outcomes and subjective well-being are identified as an area requiring further attention.
We then set out how the profiling instruments can be transferred: a minimal indicator set for countries with constrained data, a pattern-matching procedure for identifying relevant comparators, and guidance on adapting thresholds to national circumstances without breaking cross-country comparability.
The paper argues that universal benchmarks need country-specific diagnostics to become actionable, and offers a replicable version suited to emerging economies.