The Cracks Index · v1-20260518

Every developed country has cracks. This is the world ranking of who catches people first.

Name: The Cracks Index
Creator: Fynqo
Published: 2026-05-18
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

A social safety net is a promise: when someone slips, there is something to catch them. The Cracks Index measures how well that promise holds in 40 countries, based on six public indicators, with every step open to inspection.

The Cracks Clock

1,473

Estimated number of people falling through a crack in the safety net this year across the 40 ranked countries, roughly 4 per day. The counter above climbs from the start of this year.

What this number actually is

Modelled statistical estimate derived from public, country-level yearly aggregates — not a count of real events and not the tracking of any real individual. No personal data is used or processed. The figure simply expresses an existing yearly statistic at a human-readable cadence.

No personal data is read, stored or modelled. The Cracks Clock is a way to feel the scale of an existing public statistic, not a live view of real people.

Catches people best

Norway

Composite 0.1

Widest cracks

Colombia

Composite 97.8

Indicators · weighting

6 public measures

See the method →

Why this index exists

A safety net is a promise. This makes it visible whether that promise holds.

A social safety net promises one thing: when someone slips, something catches them. Yet in every developed country people still fall between the cracks. Signals get lost, handovers between agencies break down. Until now, no one openly and comparably measured how well countries keep that promise. Reports exist, but they are slow, closed and hard to verify.

The Cracks Index makes it measurable: one reproducible, open and verifiable score, built without touching a single piece of personal data.

What it gives you

Who the index is built for

For residents

See at a glance how well your country or municipality catches people, and the one change that would help most. No jargon, no fine print.

For policymakers and municipalities

A neutral baseline, plus the fix with the greatest leverage. A concrete starting point to work from, not a verdict on what went wrong.

For journalists and researchers

A citable, reproducible source with the arithmetic in view. Freely reusable under CC-BY-4.0: fork it, build on it, credit the source.

For anyone who wants to check it

The method is fully open. Every score can be recomputed by hand. Nothing is hidden, nothing has to be taken on our word.

The ranking

All 40 countries, a lower score is better

Snapshot 2026-05-18

The composite score runs from 0 to 100. A lower score means fewer people slip through. Open a country for the breakdown into six indicators and the change most likely to close the widest crack.

Find your country, region or municipality →

#	Country	Composite score	Safety net
1	Norway NOR	0.1	Holding	→
2	Iceland ISL	1.2	Holding	→
3	Denmark DNK	2.9	Holding	→
4	Sweden SWE	5.1	Holding	→
5	Switzerland CHE	5.9	Holding	→
6	Finland FIN	7.8	Holding	→
7	Luxembourg LUX	9.9	Holding	→
8	Austria AUT	14.0	Holding	→
9	Netherlands NLD	15.8	Holding	→
10	Czechia CZE	17.0	Holding	→
11	Slovenia SVN	19.3	Holding	→
12	Germany DEU	20.5	Holding	→
13	Japan JPN	21.4	Holding	→
14	Belgium BEL	22.1	Holding	→
15	Ireland IRL	23.3	Holding	→
16	Estonia EST	26.6	Under strain	→
17	Australia AUS	29.1	Under strain	→
18	France FRA	29.1	Under strain	→
19	United Kingdom GBR	29.8	Under strain	→
20	New Zealand NZL	31.8	Under strain	→
21	Canada CAN	33.2	Under strain	→
22	Poland POL	33.3	Under strain	→
23	South Korea KOR	35.2	Under strain	→
24	Slovakia SVK	35.3	Under strain	→
25	Portugal PRT	37.1	Under strain	→
26	Croatia HRV	42.2	Under strain	→
27	Spain ESP	43.6	Under strain	→
28	Italy ITA	45.4	Under strain	→
29	Lithuania LTU	46.5	Under strain	→
30	Hungary HUN	47.9	Under strain	→
31	Latvia LVA	52.5	Widening	→
32	United States USA	56.5	Widening	→
33	Greece GRC	68.1	Widening	→
34	Chile CHL	68.3	Widening	→
35	Romania ROU	72.4	Widening	→
36	Costa Rica CRI	72.7	Widening	→
37	Bulgaria BGR	79.6	Open	→
38	Türkiye TUR	84.9	Open	→
39	Mexico MEX	87.9	Open	→
40	Colombia COL	97.8	Open	→

Holding Under strain Widening Open

What the score is built on

Six places where someone can fall through

Each indicator is a recognised public statistic. Together they trace the path a hard year often follows, from the first missed payment to the last service that did not arrive in time.

Problematic debt

19%

Share of households with debts they can no longer repay. The first crack most people fall through, and the one that pushes the others open.

% of households · Eurostat SILC, national debt registers

Number of evictions

15%

Court-ordered evictions per 10,000 households. A direct measure of how often housing insecurity is allowed to reach its endpoint.

per 10,000 households · Eurostat, national housing registers, CBS StatLine

Mental-health treatment gap

15%

Share of people with an identified mental-health care need who receive no care. The distance between needing help and reaching it.

% unmet need · OECD health statistics, Eurostat unmet-need survey

Unmet youth care

12%

Share of young people referred for care who wait longer than the recommended term or are never helped. A crack measured early in a life.

% unmet need · OECD, Eurostat, national youth-care reporting

Food insecurity

12%

Share of the population reporting moderate or severe food insecurity. The point at which a financial shortfall reaches the kitchen table.

% of the population · FAO / Gallup food-insecurity figures, World Bank

Severe material deprivation

12%

Share of the population unable to afford several basic necessities that most people take for granted. A widely used floor for material insecurity.

% of the population · Eurostat SILC severe material deprivation

Social assistance

8%

People on social assistance (bijstand) per 1,000 inhabitants. Social-assistance receipt reflects income insecurity, so a higher value counts as more strain on the safety net.

per 1,000 inhabitants · CBS StatLine 83619NED

Homelessness

8%

Estimated homeless people per 10,000 inhabitants. A modelled estimate at municipality level, as no per-municipality open measurement exists. Homelessness is an unambiguous sign of a torn safety net.

per 10,000 inhabitants · CBS homelessness, municipality modelled

Built to be checked, not just read

The Cracks Index is a living v0. The data, the weighting and the calculation are all public, so a critic can re-run it and a journalist can cite it with the arithmetic in view. This is the first world index built without touching a single piece of personal data, and the first designed to be queried directly by both AI agents and people.

Read the methodology Netherlands: rank 9

See Cracks Pro for history, area benchmarks and API access

Cite this index

Fynqo (2026). The Cracks Index, v1-20260518. Snapshot of 2026-05-18. Licensed under CC-BY-4.0. https://fynqo.app/cracks-index/

Licensed under CC-BY-4.0. Reuse it, fork it, build on it, with attribution.

Press kit and open dataset · Embed a score card

Pricing

The index is free. After that, pick what fits.

The public ranking stays open to everyone. If you work with the data, or represent a municipality or housing corporation, two additional layers are available.

Free

0 euros

The full ranking, every country and area in detail, and the open dataset.

Pro Research

59 euros per month

History, area benchmarks and API access for researchers and journalists.

For organisations

On request

Municipality or housing corporation? Claim your area score and track performance over time.

See pricing