On the construction of a Composite Index to assess holistically the sustainability of the evolution of a country

Economists establish a clear-cut distinction among the ideas of Economic Growth (EG) and Economic Development (ED) and Sustainable Development (SD). However, the definition of the second and third ones tends to be fuzzier than it is for the first one, giving room to misunderstandings and a wrong use and manipulation of ED and SD concepts. In this article, the authors propose an analysis of a territory's evolution on the basis of a composite indicator that combines both streams of thought aligned with environmental and sustainability aspects as well as economic and society factors. To reach this goal a composite indicator with a more comprehensive architecture is designed. It includes concepts of EG and ED, as well as terms of sustainable development and social welfare. The essence of the application of this indicator is to gauge the quality of a country's evolution beyond economic or development terms solely. With this aim, economic, environmental, sustainability and social fields are considered to account in the country's economic evolution computation. To obtain results, a framework to assess key relationships among society fields, a methodology which includes entropy to select best indicators and also a MCDM method to compute the Composite Indicator to Measure a Country Evolution (CIMCE) are provided. The results show that this composite index based on a robust methodology supported by the application of a MCDM method is suitable for the holistic assessment and sustainable management of the evolution of a country as a way for contributing to several Sustainable Development Goals. •CIMCE aims to aware policy makers when measuring a country evolution neglecting fields like Sustainability, Environment or Social aspects.•A comprehensive methodology to guide readers is designed.•An innovative network of relationships among elements with influence in a sustainable development of a country is proposed.•A MCDM method is developed to get robust results.