Engineering:Human Development Index

Short description: Composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income indices

World map of countries or territories by HDI scores in increments of 0.050 (based on 2021 data, published in 2022)

•   ≥ 0.950
•   0.900–0.950
•   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
•   ≤ 0.399
•   Data unavailable

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, which is used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores a higher level of HDI when the lifespan is higher, the education level is higher, and the gross national income GNI (PPP) per capita is higher. It was developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul-Haq and was further used to measure a country's development by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)'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), 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 index is based on the human development approach, developed by Mahbub ul-Haq, anchored in Amartya Sen's work on human capabilities, and often framed in terms of whether people are able to "be" and "do" desirable things in life. Examples include – being: well fed, sheltered, and 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.

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 of some of the most developed 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 (UNDP). These annual reports 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 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.

The underlying principles behind the Human Development Index

Dimensions and calculation

New method (2010 HDI onwards)

HDI trends between 1990 and 2021

World   OECD countries

Developing countries:   Arab States   East Asia and the Pacific   Europe and Central Asia   Latin America and the Caribbean   South Asia   Sub-Saharan Africa

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: 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) [math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{\textrm{LE} - 20}{85-20} }[/math][math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{\textrm{LE} - 20}{65} }[/math]

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 (EI) [math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{{\textrm{MYSI} + \textrm{EYSI}}} {2} }[/math]

2.1 Mean Years of Schooling Index (MYSI) [math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{\textrm{MYS}}{15} }[/math]

Fifteen is the projected maximum of this indicator for 2025.

2.2 Expected Years of Schooling Index (EYSI) [math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{\textrm{EYS}}{18} }[/math]

Eighteen is equivalent to achieving a master's degree in most countries.

3. Income Index (II) [math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{\ln(\textrm{GNIpc}) - \ln(100)}{\ln(75,000) - \ln(100)} }[/math][math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{\ln(\textrm{GNIpc}) - \ln(100)}{\ln(750)} }[/math]

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:

[math]\displaystyle{ \textrm{HDI} = \sqrt[3]{\textrm{LEI}\cdot \textrm{EI} \cdot \textrm{II}}. }[/math]

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, incl. young men and women aged 13–17)
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 per capita at purchasing power parity.

HDI trends between 1975 and 2004

OECD   Europe (not in the OECD), and CIS   Latin America and the Caribbean   East Asia

Arab League   South Asia   Sub-Saharan Africa

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). In general, to transform a raw variable, say [math]\displaystyle{ 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]\displaystyle{ x\text{ index} = \frac{x - a}{b - a} }[/math]

where [math]\displaystyle{ a }[/math] and [math]\displaystyle{ b }[/math] are the lowest and highest values the variable [math]\displaystyle{ x }[/math] can attain, respectively.

The Human Development Index (HDI) then represents the uniformly weighted sum with ​¹⁄₃ contributed by each of the following factor indices:

• Life Expectancy Index [math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{LE - 25} {85-25} }[/math][math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{LE - 25} {60} }[/math]
• Education Index = [math]\displaystyle{ \frac{2} {3} \times ALI + \frac{1} {3} \times GEI }[/math]
  • Adult Literacy Index (ALI)[math]\displaystyle{ \frac{ALR - 0} {100 - 0} }[/math][math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{ALR} {100} }[/math]
  • Gross Enrollment Index (GEI) [math]\displaystyle{ \frac{CGER - 0} {100 - 0} }[/math][math]\displaystyle{ =\frac{CGER} {100} }[/math]
• GDP [math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{\log\left(GDPpc\right) - \log\left(100\right)} {\log\left(40000\right) - \log\left(100\right)} }[/math][math]\displaystyle{ = \frac{\log\left(GDPpc\right) - \log\left(100\right)} {\log\left(400\right)} }[/math]

2021 Human Development Index (2022 report)

Average annual HDI growth from 2010 to 2021 (published in 2022)

•   ≥ 1.4%
•   1.2%…1.4%
•   1%…1.2%
•   0.8%…1%
•   0.6%…0.8%
•   0.4%…0.6%
•   0.2%…0.4%
•   0%…0.2%
•   −0.5%…0%
•   −1%…−0.5%
•   < −1%
•   No data

The Human Development Report 2022 by the United Nations Development Programme was released on 8 September 2022; the report calculates HDI values based on data collected in 2021.

Ranked from 1 to 66 in the year 2021, the following countries are considered to be of "very high human development":

Rank		Nation	HDI
2021 data (2022 report)​	Change since 2015​		2021 data (2022 report)​	Average annual growth (2010–2021)​
0.962 1	0	Switzerland	0.962	0.0019 0.19%
0.961 2	0	Norway	0.961	0.0019 0.19%
0.959 3	0	Iceland	0.959	0.0056 0.56%
0.952 4	3 (3)	Hong Kong	0.952	0.0044 0.44%
0.951 5	3 (3)	Australia	0.951	0.0027 0.27%
0.948 6	0	Denmark	0.948	0.0034 0.34%
0.947 7	-2 (2)	Sweden	0.947	0.0036 0.36%
0.945 8	6 (6)	Ireland	0.945	0.0040 0.40%
0.942 9	-5 (5)	Germany	0.942	0.0016 0.16%
0.941 10	-1 (1)	Netherlands	0.941	0.0024 0.24%
0.940 11	0	Finland	0.940	0.0029 0.29%
0.939 12	-1 (1)	Singapore	0.939	0.0029 0.29%
0.937 13	2 (2)	Belgium	0.937	0.0025 0.25%
	-3 (3)	New Zealand		0.0015 0.15%
0.936 15	-2 (2)	Canada	0.936	0.0025 0.25%
0.935 16	-1 (1)	Liechtenstein	0.935	0.0022 0.22%
0.930 17	3 (3)	Luxembourg	0.930	0.0018 0.18%
0.929 18	-3 (3)	United Kingdom	0.929	0.0017 0.17%
0.925 19	0	Japan	0.925	0.0027 0.27%
	3 (3)	South Korea		0.0035 0.35%
0.921 21	-3 (3)	United States	0.921	0.0010 0.10%
0.919 22	0	Israel	0.919	0.0025 0.25%
0.918 23	4 (4)	Malta	0.918	0.0058 0.58%
	1 (1)	Slovenia		0.0028 0.28%
0.916 25	-4 (4)	Austria	0.916	0.0014 0.14%
0.911 26	9 (9)	United Arab Emirates	0.911	0.0080 0.80%
0.905 27	0	Spain	0.905	0.0038 0.38%
0.903 28	-3 (3)	France	0.903	0.0027 0.27%
0.896 29	3 (3)	Cyprus	0.896	0.0041 0.41%
0.895 30	-1 (1)	Italy	0.895	0.0013 0.13%
0.890 31	-2 (2)	Estonia	0.890	0.0030 0.30%
0.889 32	-6 (6)	Czechia	0.889	0.0020 0.20%
0.887 33	-2 (2)	Greece	0.887	0.0019 0.19%
0.876 34	-1 (1)	Poland	0.876	0.0037 0.37%
0.875 35	3 (3)	Bahrain	0.875	0.0073 0.73%
	1 (1)	Lithuania		0.0035 0.35%
	2 (2)	Saudi Arabia		0.0064 0.64%
0.866 38	2 (2)	Portugal	0.866	0.0040 0.40%
0.863 39	1 (1)	Latvia	0.863	0.0042 0.42%
0.858 40	-6 (6)	Andorra	0.858	0.0011 0.11%
	5 (5)	Croatia		0.0040 0.40%
0.855 42	1 (1)	Chile	0.855	0.0046 0.46%
	1 (1)	Qatar		0.0023 0.23%
0.853 44	-1000 NA	San Marino	0.853	-1 NA
0.848 45	-5 (5)	Slovakia	0.848	0.0009 0.09%
0.846 46	1 (1)	Hungary	0.846	0.0020 0.20%
0.842 47	-4 (4)	Argentina	0.842	0.0009 0.09%
0.838 48	6 (6)	Turkey	0.838	0.0103 1.03%
0.832 49	3 (3)	Montenegro	0.832	0.0027 0.27%
0.831 50	-1 (1)	Kuwait	0.831	0.0020 0.20%
0.829 51	-3 (3)	Brunei	0.829	0.0001 0.01%
0.822 52	-2 (2)	Russia	0.822	0.0029 0.29%
0.821 53	3 (4)	Romania	0.821	0.0016 0.16%
0.816 54	-3 (3)	Oman	0.816	0.0032 0.32%
0.812 55	-2 (2)	Bahamas	0.812	0.0000 0.00%
0.811 56	4 (4)	Kazakhstan	0.811	0.0051 0.51%
0.810 57	-2 (2)	Trinidad and Tobago	0.810	0.0023 0.23%
0.809 58	4 (4)	Costa Rica	0.809	0.0043 0.43%
	0	Uruguay		0.0025 0.25%
0.808 60	-3 (3)	Belarus	0.808	0.0021 0.21%
0.805 61	0	Panama	0.805	0.0037 0.37%
0.803 62	1 (1)	Malaysia	0.803	0.0039 0.39%
0.802 63	7 (7)	Georgia	0.802	0.0050 0.50%
	2 (2)	Mauritius		0.0055 0.55%
	4 (4)	Serbia		0.0041 0.41%
0.800 66	6 (6)	Thailand	0.800	0.0075 0.75%

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, 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

• Angolan Provinces
• African countries
• Albanian Counties
• Algerian Regions
• Argentine provinces
• Armenian provinces
• Australian states
• Austrian states
• Azerbaijani regions
• Baltic Regions
• Bangladeshi districts and divisions
• Belgian provinces
• Bolivian departments
• Bosnia and Herzegovina regions
• Brazilian states
• Canadian provinces and territories
• Chilean regions
• Chinese administrative divisions
• Colombian departments
• Croatian counties
• Danish regions
• Dutch provinces
• Egyptian governorates
• 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
• Mexican states
• Nepalese provinces
• New Zealand regions
• Nigerian states
• Norwegian regions
• Pakistani administrative units
• Philippine provinces
• Palestinian regions
• Polish voivodeships
• Romanian regions
• Russian federal subjects
• South African provinces
• South Korean regions
• Spanish communities
• Swedish regions
• Swiss regions
• Thai regions
• Turkish regions
• UK regions
• Ukrainian regions
• U.S. states (American Human Development Report (AHDR))
• Venezuelan states
• Vietnamese regions

Criticism

HDI in relation to consumption-based CO
2 emissions per capita

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 have identified three sources of data error which are: (i) data updating, (ii) formula revisions and (iii) thresholds to classify a country's development status. They 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. Wolff, Chong and Auffhammer suggest that the United Nations should discontinue the practice of classifying countries into development bins because the cut-off values seem arbitrary, and the classifications can provide incentives for strategic behavior in reporting official statistics, as well as having 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 by updating the thresholds to classify nations as low, medium, and high human development countries. In a comment to The Economist in early January 2011, the Human Development Report Office responded to an article published in the magazine on 6 January 2011 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

• Gross National Happiness
• Broad measures of economic progress
• Corruption Perceptions Index
• Democracy indices
• Fragile States Index
• Gender Inequality Index
• Gender Development Index
• Genuine progress indicator (GPI)
• Global Peace Index (GPI)
• Green gross domestic product (Green GDP)
• Green national product
• Gross domestic product
• Gross National Well-being (GNW)
• Happy Planet Index (HPI)
• Human Poverty Index
• List of countries by inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)
• Legatum Prosperity Index
• List of countries by Human Development Index
• Living Planet Index
• Multidimensional Poverty Index
• OECD Better Life Index (BLI)
• List of countries by planetary pressures–adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI)
• World Press Freedom Index
• 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 sovereign states 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
• Life satisfaction
• Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

External links

• Human Development Index
• Human Development Tools and Rankings

sah:HDI