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:
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
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-index =
where 
and
are the
lowest and highest values the variable x can
attain, respectively.
The Human Development Index (HDI) then represents the average of the following three general indices:
- Life Expectancy Index =
- Education Index =
- GDP Index =
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
Calculation examples of the indices.
| Index |
Measure |
Minimum value |
Maximum value |
Formula |
| Longevity |
Life expectancy at birth (LE) |
25 yrs |
85 yrs |
 |
| Education |
Literacy rate (LR) |
0% |
100% |
 |
| Combined gross enrolment ratio (CGER) |
0% |
100% |
| GDP |
GDP per capita (PPP) |
100 USD
|
40,000 USD
|
 |
2006 report
-
Coloured world map indicating Human Development Index (2006)
| 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 0.300–0.349 under 0.300 N/A |
(colour-blind compliant
map)
The report for 2006 was launched in Cape Town,
South Africa, on November 9, 2006. Its focus was on "power, poverty and the global water crisis." [1] Most of the data used for the report are
derived largely from 2004 or earlier, thus indicating an HDI for 2004. Not all UN
member states choose to or are able to provide the necessary statistics.
The report showed a stagnation in world HDI, as the continued improvement of developed
countries was offset by a general decline of the developing world. Countries
in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia showed an
important decline in HDI, in comparison with last year's report. Other developing regions showed little to no improvement.
A HDI below 0.5 is considered to represent low development. 29 of the 31 countries in that category are located in
Africa, with the exceptions of Haiti and Yemen. The bottom ten countries are all in Africa. The highest-scoring Sub-Saharan countries, Equatorial Guinea and South Africa, are ranked 120th and 121st,
respectively (with a shared HDI of 0.653).
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.
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 thirty countries (HDI range from 0.965 down to 0.885)
Top/bottom three countries by region
Countries not included
The following countries or territories are not ranked in the 2006 Human Development Index, for being unable or unwilling to
provide the necessary data, or for not being recognized as states by the United Nations
at the time of publication.
Past top countries
The number one ranked country in each year of the index. Canada is the highest ranking
country, staying at the top ten times, and is followed by Norway, which stayed at the top six
times.
References
See also
