Human Development Index

World map indicating Human Development Index (2007)

0.950 and over      0.900–0.949      0.850–0.899      0.800–0.849      0.750–0.799

0.700–0.749      0.650–0.699      0.600–0.649      0.550–0.599      0.500–0.549

0.450–0.499      0.400–0.449      0.350–0.399      under 0.350      not available

(Colour-blind compliant map) For red-green color vision problems.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is the measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to determine and indicate whether a country is a developed, developing, or underdeveloped country and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life.^[1] The index was developed in 1990 by Indian Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen, Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, with help from Gustav Ranis of Yale University and Lord Meghnad Desai of the London School of Economics and has been used since then by the United Nations Development Programme in its annual Human Development Report. Described by Sen as a "vulgar measure", because of its limitations, it nonetheless focuses attention on wider aspects of development than the per capita income measure it supplanted, and is a pathway for researchers into the wide variety of more detailed measures contained in the Human Development Reports. The HDI measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development:

• A long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth.
• 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).
• A decent standard of living, as measured by the log of gross domestic product (GDP) per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) in USD.

Each year, UN member states are listed and ranked according to these measures. Those high on the list often advertise it,^[2] as a means of attracting talented immigrants (economically, individual capital) or discouraging emigration. An alternative measure, focusing on the amount of poverty in a country, is the Human Poverty Index.

Methodology

HDI trends between 1975 and 2004

OECD      Central and eastern Europe, and the CIS      Latin America and the Caribbean      East Asia

Arab States      South Asia      Sub-Saharan Africa

In general to transform a raw variable, say <math>x</math>, into a unit-free index between 0 and 1 (which allows different indices to be added together), the following formula is used:

• <math>x</math>-index = <math>\frac{x - \min\left(x\right)} {\max\left(x\right)-\min\left(x\right)}</math>

where <math>\min\left(x\right)</math> and <math>\max\left(x\right)</math> are the lowest and highest values the variable <math>x</math> can attain, respectively. The Human Development Index (HDI) then represents the average of the following three general indices:

• Life Expectancy Index = <math>\frac{LE - 25} {85-25}</math>
• Education Index = <math>\frac{2} {3} \times ALI + \frac{1} {3} \times GEI</math>
  • Adult Literacy Index (ALI) = <math>\frac{ALR - 0} {100 - 0}</math>
  • Gross Enrolment Index (GEI) = <math>\frac{CGER - 0} {100 - 0}</math>
• GDP Index = <math>\frac{\log\left(GDPpc\right) - \log\left(100\right)} {\log\left(40000\right) - \log\left(100\right)}</math>

LE: Life expectancy at birth
ALR: Adult literacy rate (ages 15 and older)
CGER: Combined gross enrolment ratio for primary, secondary and tertiary schools
GDPpc: GDP per capita at PPP in USD UNDP has created a technical note on the definition of the HDI (see links below).

Examples

2007 report

Main article: List of countries by Human Development Index

The report for 2007 was launched in Brasilia, Brazil, on November 27, 2007. Its focus was on "Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world." [1] Most of the data used for the report are derived largely from 2005 or earlier, thus indicating an HDI for 2005. Not all UN member states choose to or are able to provide the necessary statistics. The report showed a small increase in world HDI in comparison with last year's report. This rise was fueled by a general improvement in the developing world, specially of the least developed countries group. This marked improvement at the bottom was offset with a decrease in HDI of high income countries. A HDI below 0.5 is considered to represent "low development". All 22 countries in that category are located in Africa. The highest-scoring Sub-Saharan countries, Gabon and South Africa, are ranked 119th and 121st, respectively. Nine countries departed from this category this year and joined the "medium development" group. A HDI of 0.8 or more is considered to represent "high development". This includes all developed countries, such as those in North America, Western Europe, Oceania, and Eastern Asia, as well as some developing countries in Eastern Europe, Central and South America, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, and the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula. Seven countries were promoted to this category this year, leaving the "medium development" group: Albania, Belarus, Brazil, Libya, Macedonia, Russia and Saudi Arabia. On the following table, green arrows () represent an increase in ranking over the previous study, while red arrows () represent a decrease in ranking. They are followed by the number of spaces they moved. Blue dashes () represent a nation that did not move in the rankings since the previous study.

Top fifty countries (HDI range from 0.968 down to 0.843)

Countries not included

The following United Nations member states are not ranked in the 2007 Human Development Index, for being unable or unwilling to provide the necessary data at the time of publication.

Past top countries

The number one ranked country in each year of the index. Canada has been the highest ranked country ten times, followed by Norway, which stayed at the top six times. Japan has been ranked highest twice and Switzerland and Iceland once.

References

See also

Sustainable development Portal

• Freedom House
• Gini coefficient
• Gender-related Development Index
• Gender Empowerment Measure
• Living Planet Index
• Gross national happiness
• Happy Planet Index
• Physical quality-of-life index
• Visa Waiver Program

External links

• Human Development Report Office
• Human Development Report 2007/2008PDF (12.01 MiB)
• Technical note explaining the definition of the HDIPDF (598 KiB)
• List of countries by HDI at NationMaster.com
• Human Development Map
• HDI Forecasting Report