Introduced by the

United Nations Development Programme The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towar ...

(UNDP) in 1990, the

Human Development Index The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, Education Index, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income i ...

(HDI) is a composite statistic of education, income and longevity indices, calculated in order to measure social and economic development within countries. It consists of a number between 0 and 1, comprising five tiers of

human development Human development may refer to: * Development of the human body ** This includes physical developments such as growth, and also development of the brain * Developmental psychology * Development theory * Human development (economics) * Human Develo ...

—very low, low, medium, high, or very high—wherein the development is considered higher when closer to 1. According to the latest ''

Human Development Report The Human Development Report (HDR) is an annual Human Development Index report published by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The first HDR was launched in 1990 by the Pakistani economist Ma ...

'', published in 2015 and reflecting data from 2014,

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

placed 75th among 188 countries with an HDI value of 0.755. The UNDP highlighted the "rapid advance" of Brazil in two decades, leaving a situation of low human development (0.590) in 1990, reaching medium development (0.669) in 2000 and, finally, achieving high human development (0.726) in 2010. In order to bring a human development perspective to the national level, the UNDP also created, in 1998, the '' Human Development Atlas in Brazil'', which calculates the HDI of all the Brazilian

administrative divisions Administrative divisions (also administrative units, administrative regions, subnational entities, or constituent states, as well as many similar generic terms) are geographical areas into which a particular independent sovereign state is divi ...

, based on data provided by the decennial censuses conducted by the

Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (; IBGE) is the agency responsible for official collection of statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information in Brazil. IBGE performs a decennial national cen ...

(IBGE). Released in 2013, in partnership with the

Institute of Applied Economic Research The Institute for Applied Economic Research ( Portuguese: ''Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada'', Ipea) is a Brazilian government-led research organization dedicated to generating macroeconomical, sectorial and thematic studies in order to b ...

(IPEA) and the

João Pinheiro Foundation The João Pinheiro Foundation (Fundação João Pinheiro, FJP) is an entity of the government of Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in numb ...

(FJP), the latest edition of the ''Human Development Atlas in Brazil'' shows that the average HDI of the Brazilian federative units grew by 47.5% from 1991 to 2010. Since the beginning of the statistical series in 1991, the

Federal District A federal district is a specific administrative division in one of various federations. These districts may be under the direct jurisdiction of a federation's national government, as in the case of federal territory (e.g., India, Malaysia), or the ...

, which contains the national capital—

Brasília Brasília ( ; ) is the capital city, capital of Brazil and Federal District (Brazil), Federal District. Located in the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West region, it was founded by President Juscelino ...

—, has the highest HDI among the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the only one to fall in the category of very high human development according to 2010 figures. It also topped every subindex composing the HDI, except for longevity, when, in 1991, it was surpassed by Santa Catarina. Meanwhile,

Alagoas Alagoas () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco (N and NW); Sergipe (S); Bahia (SW); and the Atlantic Ocean (E). Its capital is ...

set out the lowest HDI since 2000, especially due to a poor performance in education.

Tocantins Tocantins () is one of the 26 states of Brazil. It is the newest state, formed in 1988 and encompassing what had formerly been the northern two-fifths of the state of Goiás. Tocantins covers and had an estimated population of 1,496,880 in 2014 ...

put forward the fastest progress in HDI value (0.330) from 1991 to 2010, while

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

had the smallest increase (0.188). According to the UNDP report, the states of the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and Northeast regions have the lowest indicators, with most

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

registering low or medium human development, while in the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

, more than 65% of municipalities have achieved high human development. The

and

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, ...

regions and the

have the highest indicators and human development indices.

''Human Development Atlas''

The methodology used by the UNDP to measure the HDI of all 5,565 Brazilian municipalities and 27 federative units differs from that used for countries. Although it has the same three dimensions of the global HDI—education, income and longevity—it adapts the global methodology to the Brazilian context and the availability of national indicators. Therefore, a comparison between Brazilian federative units and countries is discouraged and the numbers cannot be used as a parameter. The global report uses mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling to evaluate education, while the local report utilizes schooling of the adult population and school flow of young people. In the case of income, while the global report uses GNI per capita ( PPP

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

), the local report makes use of the Municipal Income per capita ( BRL). As for longevity, both use life expectancy at birth as indicator. ;Maps

References

;Specific ;General :* :* {{Portal bar, Economics, Brazil Federative units by Human Development Index Brazilian federative units by Human Development Index Brazilian federative units by Human Development Index Poverty in Brazil

''Human Development Atlas''

See also

References