TheInfoList

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of
life expectancy Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time an organism is expected to live, based on the year of its birth, its current age, and other factors like sex. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth (LEB), whi ...

,
education Education is the process of facilitating , or the acquisition of , s, , morals, s, s, and personal development. Educational methods include , , , and directed . Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators; however, lea ...

(mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), 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 in ...
indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of
human developmentHuman 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, the prehistoric p ...
. A country scores a higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the
education Education is the process of facilitating , or the acquisition of , s, , morals, s, s, and personal development. Educational methods include , , , and directed . Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators; however, lea ...

level is higher, and the gross national income GNI (PPP) per capita is higher. It was developed by Pakistani economist
Mahbub ul Haq Mahbub ul Haq ( ur, ; 24 February 1934 – 16 July 1998) was a Pakistani economist An economist is a practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories a ...
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 The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace ...
)'s Human Development Report Office. The 2010
Human Development Report The Human Development Report (HDR) is an annual Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average (see below) time an ...
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 Attention inequality is a term used to target the inequality of distribution of attention across users on social networks, people in general, and for scientific papers. Yun Family Foundat ...
), 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, ; 24 February 1934 – 16 July 1998) was a Pakistani economist An economist is a practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories a ...
, anchored in 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 (as during a religious ) 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 Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for an organism In biology, an organism (from Ancient Greek, Greek: ὀργανισμός, ''organismos'') is any individual con ...

. 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 The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace ...
(UNDP). These were devised and launched by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq in 1990, and had the explicit purpose "to shift the focus of development economics from
national income A variety of measures of national income and output are used in economics Economics () is the social science that studies how people interact with value; in particular, the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distr ...

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, 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 the s ...
.

# 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 Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (they have Death ...
*
Education index An Education index is found as a component of the Human Development Index published every year by the United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and international ...
: Mean years of schooling and Expected years of schooling * A decent standard of living: GNI per capita ( PPP
international dollar The international dollar (int'l dollar or intl dollar, symbols Int'l$., Intl$., Int$), also known as Geary–Khamis dollar (symbols G-K$ or GK$), is a hypothetical unit of currency that has the same purchasing power parity that the U.S. dollar ... s) 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 1 when Life expectancy at birth Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (they have Death ... is 85 and 0 when Life expectancy at birth Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (they have Death ... is 20. 2. Education Index An Education index is found as a component of the Human Development Index published every year by the United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and international ... (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 University, 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 Profession, professio ... 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 In mathematics, the geometric mean is a mean or average, which indicates the central tendency or typical value of a set of numbers by using the product of their values (as opposed to the arithmetic mean In mathematics and statistics, the arit ...

of the previous three normalized indices: LE:
Life expectancy at birth Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (they have Death ...

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 Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time an organism is expected to live, based on the year of its birth, its current age, and other demographic Demography (from prefix ''demo-'' from Ancient Greek Ancien ...

at birth, as an index of population health and longevity to HDI * Knowledge and education, as measured by the adult
literacy Literacy is popularly understood as an ability to read and write Writing is a medium of human communication Communication (from Latin ''communicare'', meaning "to share") is the act of developing Semantics, meaning among Subject (ph ...
rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary
gross enrollment ratioGross Enrolment Ratio (GER) or Gross Enrolment Index (GEI) is a statistics, statistical measure used in the education sector, and formerly by the UN in its Education Index, to determine the number of students enrolled in school at several different g ...
(with one-third weighting). *
Standard of living Standard of living is the level of income, comforts and services available, generally applied to a society or location, rather than to an individual. Standard of living is relevant because it is considered to contribute to an individual's quality ...
, as indicated by the
natural logarithm The natural logarithm of a number is its logarithm to the base (exponentiation), base of the mathematical constant , which is an Irrational number, irrational and Transcendental number, transcendental number approximately equal to . The natura ...
of
gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary Image:National-Debt-Gillray.jpeg, In a 1786 James Gillray caricature, the plentiful money bags handed to King George III are contrasted with the beggar whose legs and arms were amputated, in the ...
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 The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace ...
). In general, to transform a raw variable, say $x$, into a unit-free
index Index may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastructure in the ''Halo'' series ...
between 0 and 1 (which allows different indices to be added together), the following
formula In , a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a . The informal use of the term ''formula'' in science refers to the . The plural of ''formula'' can be either ''formulas'' (from the mos ...

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 found as a component of the Human Development Index published every year by the United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and international ...
= $\frac \times ALI + \frac \times GEI$ ** Adult Literacy Index (ALI) = $\frac$ ** Gross Enrollment Index (GEI) = $\frac$ *
GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary In a 1786 James Gillray caricature, the plentiful money bags handed to King George III are contrasted with the beggar whose legs and arms were amputated, in the left corner">174x174px Money is any ...
= $\frac$

# 2019 Human Development Index (2020 report)

The Human Development Report 2020 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 The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace ...
was released on 15 December 2020, and calculates HDI values based on data collected in 2019. The list comprises countries and territories with ''very high human development'': * = increase. * = steady. * = decrease.

The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) "equals the HDI when there is no inequality across people but is less than the HDI as inequality rises. In this sense, the IHDI is the actual level of human development (accounting for this inequality), 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 was no inequality. The 'loss' in potential human development due to inequality is given by the difference between the HDI and the IHDI and can be expressed as a percentage." The list comprises countries and territories with ''very high'' and ''high human development'':

# Past top countries

The list below displays the top-ranked country from each year of the Human Development Index.
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway,Names in the official and recognised languages: Bokmål Bokmål (, ; literally "book tongue") is an official written standard for the Norwegian language Norwegian (Norwegian: ''norsk'') is a Nort ...

has been ranked the highest sixteen times,
Canada Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, Pacific and northward into the Arctic Oce ...

eight times, and
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally ) is an island country An island country or an island nation is a country A country is a distinct territory, territorial body or political entity. It is often referred to as the land of an in ...

and
Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic Nordic most commonly refers to: * Nordic countries, written in plural as Nordics, the northwestern European countries, including Scandinavia, Fennoscandia and the List of islands in the Atlantic Ocean#N ...

twice.

## 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 a ...
, 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 of Australia are the regional governments in Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Aust ...
* Baltic Regions * Bolivian departments *
Brazilian states The federative units of Brazil ( pt, unidades federativas do Brasil) are subnational entities with a certain degree of autonomy (self-government, self-regulation and self-collection) and endowed with their own government and constitution, which t ...
*
Canadian provinces and territories The provinces and territories of Canada are sub-national divisions within the geographical areas of Canada Canada is a country in the northern part of North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territ ...
* Chilean regions * Chinese administrative divisions * Colombian departments * Danish regions *
Dutch provinces There are twelve provinces of the Netherlands (), representing the administrative layer between the Cabinet of the Netherlands, national government and the Municipalities of the Netherlands, local municipalities, with responsibility for matters of ...
* Ethiopian regions *
European countries The list below includes all entities falling even partially under any of the regions of Europe, various common definitions of Europe, geographical or political. Fifty generally recognised sovereign states, Kosovo with limited, but substantial, ...
*
German states The Federal Republic of Germany ) , image_map = , map_caption = , map_width = 250px , capital = Berlin , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , languages_type = Official language , languages = German language, German , d ...
* Greek regions *
Indian states India India (Hindi: ), officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous country, the List of countries and dependencies by area, s ...
Indonesian provinces Provinces of Indonesia are the 34 largest Province, subdivisions of the Indonesia and the highest tier of the local government (formerly called first-level region provinces or ). Provinces are further divided into List of regencies and cities of I ...
* Iranian provinces *
Iraqi governorates Iraq presently consists of 19 governorates ( '' muḥāfażah'' in Arabic, ''parêzga'' in Kurdish), also known as "provinces". Per the Iraqi constitution, three or more governorates can join to form an autonomous region. Baghdad and Basra are t ...
* Italian regions *
Japanese prefectures Japan is divided into 47 prefectures (, ''todōfuken''), which rank immediately below the national government and form the country's first level of jurisdiction and Administrative divisions of Japan, administrative division. They include 43 pref ...
* Latin American countries *
Mexican states The states of Mexico are first-level administrative territorial entities of the country of Mexico, which officially is named United Mexican States Mexico ( es, México ; Nahuan languages: ), officially the United Mexican States (; EUM ), ...
* 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 of the Philippines, administrative divisions. There are 81 provinces at present, which are further subdivided into Cities of the Philip ...
* Palestinian regions * Polish voivodeships * Russian federal subjects * South African provinces * Spanish communities * Swiss regions * UK countries and regions of England *
U.S. states In the United States, a state is a Federated state, constituent political entity, of which there are currently 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territor ...
(
American Human Development Report Measure of America is a non-partisan, non-profit initiative of the Social Science Research Council in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It conducts research and analysis primarily on human development data from the United States at the national ...
(AHDR)) * Venezuelan states

# 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 an international weekly newspaper A weekly newspaper is a general-news or current affairsCurrent affairs may refer to: Media * Current Affairs (magazine), ''Current Affairs'' (magazine), a bimonthly magazine of cult ...
'' 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.

## Indices

* Bhutan GNH Index *
Broad measures of economic progress Although for many decades, it was customary to focus on GDP Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary In a 1786 James Gillray caricature, the plentiful money bags handed to King George III are contrasted with the beggar whose legs and ar ...
*
Corruption Perceptions Index The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index which ranks countries "by their perceived levels of public sector The public sector (also called the state sector) is the part of the economy composed of both public service A public s ...
*
Democracy Index The ''Democracy Index'' is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is the research and analysis division of the Economist Group The Economist Group (legally The Economist Newspaper Limited) ...

*
Fragile States Index 360px, Fragile States according to the "Fragile States Index", 2005–2013'' The Fragile States Index (FSI; formerly the Failed States Index) is an annual report published by the United States think tank A think tank, or policy institute, ...
*
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 The Human Development Report (HDR) is an annual report published by the Human Development Report Office of ...

*
Gender-related Development IndexThe Gender Related Development Index (GDI) is an index Index may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an i ...
* Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) *
Global Peace Index Global Peace Index (GPI) is a report produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) which measures the relative position of nations' and regions' peacefulness. The GPI ranks 172 independent states and territories (collectively accounti ...

(GPI) *
Green gross domestic product The green gross domestic product (green GDP or GGDP) is an index of economic growth Economic growth can be defined as the increase in the inflation-adjusted market value of the goods and services produced by an economics, economy over time. Stati ...
(Green GDP) *
Green national productThe green national product is an economic metric that seeks to include environmental features such as environmental degradation and resource depletion with a country's national product. Criticism of gross national product The gross national ...
*
Gross domestic product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary Image:National-Debt-Gillray.jpeg, In a 1786 James Gillray caricature, the plentiful money bags handed to King George III are contrasted with the beggar whose legs and arms were amputated, in the ...
*
Gross National Well-beingGross National Wellness (GNW) or Well-being is a socioeconomic development and measurement framework. The GNW / GNH Index consists of 7 dimensions: economic, environmental, physical, mental, work, social, and political Politics (from , ) is ...
(GNW) *
Happy Planet Index The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an index Index may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a h ...
(HPI) *
Human Poverty Index The Human Poverty Index (HPI) was an indication of the poverty of community in a country, developed by the United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and internatio ...
* (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 Legatum Limited, also known as Legatum, is a private investmen ...
*
List of countries by Human Development Index The United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)french: Programme des Nations unies pour le développement, PNUD is a United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organi ...
*
Living planet index The Living Planet Index (LPI) is an indicator of the state of global biological diversity Biodiversity is the biological variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic, species In b ...
*
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 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économi ...
(BLI) * Planetary pressures–adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI) * Rule of Law Index * Social Progress Index * Where-to-be-born Index * World Happiness Report

## Other

* Developing country * Economic development * Ethics of care * Happiness economics * Human Development and Capability Association * Humanistic economics * International development * List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty * List of countries by share of income of the richest one percent * Right to an adequate standard of living * Subjective life satisfaction * Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)