[Excerpt] This 2016 report follows in the footsteps of the 2013 Asian Development Bank (ADB) report, The Social Protection Index: Assessing Results for Asia and the Pacific. While this report starts by analyzing the general results for a sample of 38 countries in Asia and the Pacific, it thereafter concentrates on the 25 countries in Asia. A companion publication covers 13 countries in the Pacific. The Social Protection Indicator (SPI) is an indicator for assessing social protection effectiveness within and across countries. The SPI is a simple ratio and is based first on dividing total expenditures on social protection by the total potential beneficiaries of social protection. Then this ratio is compared with gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. The SPI is disaggregated into the corresponding SPIs for the three major categories of social protection programs: social insurance, social assistance, and labor market programs. Each of these program categories has subprograms as well.