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The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy,
education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
(mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the
education system The educational system generally refers to the structure of all institutions and the opportunities for obtaining education within a country. It includes all pre-school institutions, starting from family education, and/or early childhood education ...
), and
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...
indicators, which is used to rank countries into four tiers of
human development Human development may refer to: * Development of the human body * Developmental psychology * Human development (economics) * Human Development Index, an index used to rank countries by level of human development * Human evolution Human evoluti ...
. A country scores a higher level of HDI when the lifespan is higher, the
education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
level is higher, and the gross national income
GNI (PPP) per capita This article includes a list of countries of the world sorted by their Gross National Income (GNI) per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP). For rankings regarding wealth, see list of countries by wealth per adult. List See also *List ...
is higher. It was developed by Pakistani economist
Mahbub ul Haq Mahbub ul Haq ( ur, ; ) was a Pakistani economist, international development theorist, and politician who served as the Minister of Finance of Pakistan from 10 April 1985 to 28 January 1986, and again from June to December 1988 as a careta ...
and was further used to measure a country's development by the United Nations Development Programme (
UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
)'s Human Development Report Office. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced an Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI). While the simple HDI remains useful, it stated that "the IHDI is the actual level of human development (accounting for
inequality Inequality may refer to: Economics * Attention inequality, unequal distribution of attention across users, groups of people, issues in etc. in attention economy * Economic inequality, difference in economic well-being between population groups * ...
), while the HDI can be viewed as an index of 'potential' human development (or the maximum level of HDI) that could be achieved if there were no inequality." The index is based on the human development approach, developed by
Mahbub ul Haq Mahbub ul Haq ( ur, ; ) was a Pakistani economist, international development theorist, and politician who served as the Minister of Finance of Pakistan from 10 April 1985 to 28 January 1986, and again from June to December 1988 as a careta ...
, anchored in Amartya Sen's work on human capabilities, often framed in terms of whether people are able to "be" and "do" desirable things in life. Examples include – being: well fed, sheltered, healthy; doing: work, education, voting, participating in community life. The freedom of choice is central – someone choosing to be hungry (e.g. when fasting for religious reasons) is quite different from someone who is hungry because they cannot afford to buy food, or because the country is in a
famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompani ...
. The index does not take into account several factors, such as the net wealth per capita or the relative quality of goods in a country. This situation tends to lower the ranking for some of the most advanced countries, such as the G7 members and others.


Origins

The origins of the HDI are found in the annual Human Development Reports produced by the Human Development Report Office of the
United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
(UNDP). These were devised and launched by Pakistani economist
Mahbub ul Haq Mahbub ul Haq ( ur, ; ) was a Pakistani economist, international development theorist, and politician who served as the Minister of Finance of Pakistan from 10 April 1985 to 28 January 1986, and again from June to December 1988 as a careta ...
in 1990, and had the explicit purpose "to shift the focus of development economics from national income accounting to people-centered policies". Haq believed that a simple composite measure of human development was needed to convince the public, academics, and politicians that they can and should evaluate development not only by economic advances but also improvements in human
well-being Well-being, or wellbeing, also known as wellness, prudential value or quality of life, refers to what is intrinsically valuable relative ''to'' someone. So the well-being of a person is what is ultimately good ''for'' this person, what is in th ...
.


Dimensions and calculation


New method (2010 HDI onwards)

Published on 4 November 2010 (and updated on 10 June 2011), the 2010 Human Development Report calculated the HDI combining three dimensions: * A long and healthy life: Life expectancy at birth *
Education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...
: Mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling * A decent standard of living: GNI per capita ( PPP international dollars) In its 2010 Human Development Report, the UNDP began using a new method of calculating the HDI. The following three indices are used: 1. Life Expectancy Index (LEI) = \frac ::LEI is equal to 1 when life expectancy at birth is 85 years, and 0 when life expectancy at birth is 20 years. 2.
Education Index An Education index is a component of the Human Development Index published every year by the United Nations Development Programme. Alongside the Economical indicators and Life Expectancy Index, it helps measure the educational attainment, GNI ...
(EI) = \frac :2.1 Mean Years of Schooling Index (MYSI) = \frac :: Fifteen is the projected maximum of this indicator for 2025. :2.2 Expected Years of Schooling Index (EYSI) = \frac :: Eighteen is equivalent to achieving a
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
in most countries. 3. Income Index (II) = \frac ::II is 1 when GNI per capita is $75,000 and 0 when GNI per capita is $100. Finally, the HDI is the geometric mean of the previous three normalized indices: \textrm = \sqrt LE: Life expectancy at birth
MYS: Mean years of schooling (i.e. years that a person aged 25 or older has spent in formal education)
EYS: Expected years of schooling (i.e. total expected years of schooling for children under 18 years of age)
GNIpc: Gross national income at purchasing power parity per capita


Old method (HDI before 2010)

The HDI combined three dimensions last used in its 2009 report: * Life expectancy at birth, as an index of population health and longevity to HDI * Knowledge and education, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting). * Standard of living, as indicated by the natural logarithm of
gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is oft ...
per capita ''Per capita'' is a Latin phrase literally meaning "by heads" or "for each head", and idiomatically used to mean "per person". The term is used in a wide variety of social sciences and statistical research contexts, including government statistic ...
at purchasing power parity. This methodology was used by the UNDP until their 2011 report. The formula defining the HDI is promulgated by the United Nations Development Programme (
UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
). In general, to transform a raw variable, say x, into a unit-free index between 0 and 1 (which allows different indices to be added together), the following formula is used: * x\text = \frac where a and b are the lowest and highest values the variable x can attain, respectively. The Human Development Index (HDI) then represents the uniformly weighted sum with contributed by each of the following factor indices: * Life Expectancy Index = \frac *
Education Index An Education index is a component of the Human Development Index published every year by the United Nations Development Programme. Alongside the Economical indicators and Life Expectancy Index, it helps measure the educational attainment, GNI ...
= \frac \times ALI + \frac \times GEI ** Adult Literacy Index (ALI) = \frac ** Gross Enrollment Index (GEI) = \frac *
GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...
= \frac


2021 Human Development Index (2022 report)

The Human Development Report 2022 by the
United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human dev ...
was released on 8 September 2022 and calculates HDI values based on data collected in 2021. The following countries ranked from 1 to 66 in the year 2021 are considered to be of "very high human development":


Past top countries

The list below displays the top-ranked country from each year of the Human Development Index. Norway has been ranked the highest sixteen times, Canada eight times, Japan and Iceland twice and Switzerland once.


In each original HDI

The year represents the time period from which the statistics for the index were derived. In parentheses is the year when the report was published.


Geographical coverage

The HDI has extended its geographical coverage: David Hastings, of the
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) is one of the five regional commissions under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Economic and Social Council. It was established in order to increase economic ...
, published a report geographically extending the HDI to 230+ economies, whereas the UNDP HDI for 2009 enumerates 182 economies and coverage for the 2010 HDI dropped to 169 countries.


Country/region specific HDI lists

* African countries * Argentinean provinces *
Australian states The states and territories are federated administrative divisions in Australia, ruled by regional governments that constitute the second level of governance between the federal government and local governments. States are self-governing p ...
*
Austrian states Austria is a federal republic made up of nine States (German: ''Länder''). Since ''Land'' is also the German word for "country", the term (literally ''federal states'') is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. The Constitution of Austria uses ...
* Baltic Regions * Belgian provinces * Bolivian departments * Bosnia and Herzegovina regions *
Brazilian states Brazilian commonly refers to: * Something of, from or relating to Brazil * Brazilian Portuguese, the dialect of the Portuguese language used mostly in Brazil * Brazilians, the people (citizens) of Brazil, or of Brazilian descent Brazilian may also ...
*
Canadian provinces and territories Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British Nort ...
* Chilean regions * Chinese administrative divisions * Colombian departments * Croatian counties * Danish regions * Dutch provinces * Ethiopian regions * European countries * French regions * German states * Greek regions * Indian states * Tamil Nadu districts (India) * Indonesian provinces * Iranian provinces * Iraqi governorates * Italian regions * Japanese prefectures * Latin American countries *
Malaysian states The states and federal territories of Malaysia are the principal administrative divisions of Malaysia. Malaysia is a federation of 13 states (''Negeri'') and 3 federal territories (''Wilayah Persekutuan''). States and federal territories Ele ...
*
Mexican states The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which is officially named United Mexican States. There are 32 federal entities in Mexico (31 states and the capital, Mexico City, as a separate en ...
* New Zealand regions * Nigerian states * Pakistani administrative units *
Philippine provinces In the Philippines, provinces ( fil, lalawigan) are one of its primary political and administrative divisions. There are 82 provinces at present, which are further subdivided into component cities and municipalities. The local government units ...
* Palestinian regions * Polish voivodeships * Russian federal subjects * South African provinces * South Korean regions * Spanish communities * Swedish regions * Swiss regions * Thai regions * UK regions * U.S. states ( American Human Development Report (AHDR)) * Venezuelan states * Vietnamese regions


Criticism

The Human Development Index has been criticized on a number of grounds, including alleged lack of consideration of technological development or contributions to the human civilization, focusing exclusively on national performance and ranking, lack of attention to development from a global perspective, measurement error of the underlying statistics, and on the UNDP's changes in formula which can lead to severe misclassification in the categorisation of "low", "medium", "high" or "very high" human development countries.


Sources of data error

Economists Hendrik Wolff, Howard Chong and Maximilian Auffhammer discuss the HDI from the perspective of data error in the underlying health, education and income statistics used to construct the HDI. They identified three sources of data error which are due to (i) data updating, (ii) formula revisions and (iii) thresholds to classify a country's development status and conclude that 11%, 21% and 34% of all countries can be interpreted as currently misclassified in the development bins due to the three sources of data error, respectively. The authors suggest that the United Nations should discontinue the practice of classifying countries into development bins because: the cut-off values seem arbitrary, can provide incentives for strategic behavior in reporting official statistics, and have the potential to misguide politicians, investors, charity donors and the public who use the HDI at large. In 2010, the UNDP reacted to the criticism and updated the thresholds to classify nations as low, medium, and high human development countries. In a comment to ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...
'' in early January 2011, the Human Development Report Office responded to a 6 January 2011 article in the magazine which discusses the Wolff ''et al.'' paper. The Human Development Report Office states that they undertook a systematic revision of the methods used for the calculation of the HDI, and that the new methodology directly addresses the critique by Wolff ''et al.'' in that it generates a system for continuously updating the human-development categories whenever formula or data revisions take place. In 2013, Salvatore Monni and Alessandro Spaventa emphasized that in the debate of GDP versus HDI, it is often forgotten that these are both external indicators that prioritize different benchmarks upon which the quantification of societal welfare can be predicated. The larger question is whether it is possible to shift the focus of policy from a battle between competing paradigms to a mechanism for eliciting information on well-being directly from the population.


See also


Indices

*
Bhutan GNH Index Gross National Happiness (GNH), sometimes called Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH), is a philosophy that guides the government of Bhutan. It includes an index which is used to measure the collective happiness and well-being of a population. Gross Nat ...
* Broad measures of economic progress * Corruption Perceptions Index *
Democracy Index The ''Democracy Index'' is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research division of the Economist Group, a UK-based private company which publishes the weekly newspaper ''The Economist''. Akin to a Human Development I ...
*
Fragile States Index The Fragile States Index (FSI; formerly the Failed States Index) is an annual report published by the United States think tank the Fund for Peace and the American magazine ''Foreign Policy'' from 2005 to 2018, then by The New Humanitarian since 2 ...
*
Gender Inequality Index The Gender Inequality Index (GII) is an index for measurement of gender disparity that was introduced in the 2010 Human Development Report 20th anniversary edition by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). According to the UNDP, this inde ...
* Gender-related Development Index * Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) * Global Peace Index (GPI) * Green gross domestic product (Green GDP) * Green national product *
Gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is oft ...
* Gross National Well-being (GNW) * Happy Planet Index (HPI) * Human Poverty Index * Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) *
Legatum Prosperity Index The Legatum Prosperity Index is an annual ranking developed by the Legatum Institute, an independent educational charity founded and part-funded by the private investment firm Legatum. The ranking is based on a variety of factors including wealth, ...
*
List of countries by Human Development Index The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) compiles the Human Development Index (HDI) of 191 nations in the annual Human Development Report. The index considers the health, education and income in a given country to provide a measu ...
* Living planet index *
Multidimensional Poverty Index Multidimensional Poverty Indices use a range of indicators to calculate a summary poverty figure for a given population, in which a larger figure indicates a higher level of poverty. This figure considers both the proportion of the population that ...
*
OECD Better Life Index The OECD Better Life Index, created in May 2011 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, is an initiative pioneering the development of economic indicators which better capture multiple dimensions of economic and social progre ...
(BLI) * Planetary pressures–adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI) *
Press Freedom Index The Press Freedom Index is an annual ranking of countries compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders since 2002 based upon the organisation's own assessment of the countries' press freedom records in the previous year. It intends to re ...
* Rule of Law Index * Social Progress Index * Where-to-be-born Index * World Happiness Report


Other

* Developing country * Economic development *
Ethics of care The ethics of care (alternatively care ethics or EoC) is a normative ethical theory that holds that moral action centers on interpersonal relationships and care or benevolence as a virtue. EoC is one of a cluster of normative ethical theories t ...
* Happiness economics *
Human Development and Capability Association The Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA) was launched in September 2004 at the Fourth Capability Conference in Pavia, Italy. It was founded to promote research from many disciplines on key problems including poverty, justice, well-be ...
*
Humanistic economics Humanistic economics is a distinct pattern of economic thought with old historical roots that have been more recently invigorated by E. F. Schumacher's Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (1973). Proponents argue for "persons-fir ...
* International development *
List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty Countries by percentage of population living in poverty, as recorded by World Bank and other sources. Methodology "Poverty" is defined as an economic condition by the lack of both money and basic necessities needed to live successfully, suc ...
*
List of countries by share of income of the richest one percent A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
* Right to an adequate standard of living * Subjective life satisfaction * Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)


Notes


References


External links


Human Development Index

Human Development Tools and Rankings
{{Authority control Development economics Environmental economics International rankings Science and technology in India Science and technology in Pakistan American inventions British inventions Indian inventions Pakistani inventions 1990 establishments sah:HDI