Social indicator of sustainable development is a social indicator that measures the level of damage to the environment and natural resources, which are the items to measure or sustainability of the ecosystem (social organization, population, environment and technology). Generally it will include environmental, social and economic aspects in a democratic political framework and diversity or pluralism.

Some nations in the Hispanic sphere have developed sustainability indicators or sustainable action and development or are on the way to doing so to guarantee the environment. United Nations Development Programme. (United Nations, Millennium Declaration).

Tentatively, the construction models of the index systems to measure the magnitude of the impact on the environment are inspired by European and Anglo-Saxon experiences and here two recent studies are taken: an example from a New England county and the work of Juan Diez Nicolas on the 'Dilemma of Survival'.

In the case of the county, the proposed indicators (sustainability) were first analyzed with validation criteria: opportunity, understanding, relevance, predictability, complementarity, robustness, availability, usefulness, independence and understanding. Totaling 15 selected indicators with their measurement indices for the resolution of the conflict between sustainable human life and the integrity of nature. Its typologies are established: environmental, such as traffic congestion, protected surfaces such as open space, air and water quality, and garbage generation and recycling; the social, such as safety and environmental cultivation, civil responsibility and desire to participate in decision making, health security plans, high school dropout rate and substance abuse rate; economic factors, such as housing availability, minimum wage, tourism and industry employment and wages.

The other document is a Spanish model explanatory of environmental behaviors and with 65 items of descriptive, cultural, perception, attitudes, decision, attribution, behavior and information types. Both postmaterialism and social position are the basic variables and attitudes that are more and better explanatory. Concern for the environment constitutes a new value as an instrumental collective response to the threats to the survival of the human species, which derives from too successful industrialization. Exposure to information is emphasized. The indices constructed for the analysis are included. The studies are at a national level and also with a comparative international perspective, placing the countries on a cultural map, which in the case of Spain is located precisely in the Mediterranean basin, along with other European countries with the same quality of life.