In a global context, the social development level is a crucial factor which either guarantees or affects the populations lifestyle. This is the reason why the present research will be focused on the measure of this index, using both qualitative and quantitative variables to estimate the grade of development of the countries in South America for the year of 2016, considering the variables of impact in this part of the region. The entropy weight method, on the basis of Shannon's entropy theory, was applied in order to produce a ranking which shows the social development level in the countries analyzed. To calculate the weight of the criteria, the entropy-weight method was employed, and then the countries surveyed were categorized by the outcomes of a weighted sum. Additionally, in this work an informative map of social development in the aforementioned countries is presented, which varies on a colored scale with the ranking data. The results of this study may help governments in making the best decision regarding the social development of their countries.