A Computational Model Based on Shannon Entropy to Analyze Social Development in South America

In the world, the level of social development of a country is an important factor since it guarantees the improvement of the quality of life in its population. In this study, we evaluated social development using quantitative and qualitative variables to measure the level of development of South American countries. The entropic-weight method, from Shannon's entropy theory, was applied for the purpose of obtaining a classification showing the social development level in the countries on the list. To calculate the weight of the criteria, the entropy-weight method was applied, followed by the classification of the countries studied in concordance with a weighted sum. In this work, thirteen criteria and ten countries were studied, using data from the year 2016. The results showed that the two best ranked countries were Chile and Uruguay, and the two worst ranked countries were Venezuela and Colombia. In addition, an informative map of social development in the mentioned countries, which varies in a scale of colors, was presented. As a result, the method used in the present article revealed interesting results and it could be used on other social studies considering additional evaluation criteria. The results of this work could serve to governments of South America countries to make the best decision on social problems.