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World map representing Human Development Index categories (based on 2019 data, published in 2020).
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World map of countries by Human Development Index categories in increments of 0.050 (based on 2019 data, published in 2020).
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The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic 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 are 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.[1][2][3]

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 were no inequality."[4]

The index is based on the human development approach, developed by Mahbub ul Haq, anchored in Amartya Sen's 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 (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.[5]

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.[6]

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 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.


File:HDI explained the best way.png
The underlying principles behind the Human Development Index.[5]

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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:[7][8]

In its 2010 Human Development Report, the UNDP began using a new method of calculating the HDI. The following three indices are used:

1.Template:Anchor Life Expectancy Index (LEI) <math>= \frac{\textrm{LE} - 20}{85-20}</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>= \frac{{\textrm{MYSI} + \textrm{EYSI}}} {2}</math>[9]

2.1 Mean Years of Schooling Index (MYSI) <math>= \frac{\textrm{MYS}}{15}</math>[10]
Fifteen is the projected maximum of this indicator for 2025.
2.2 Expected Years of Schooling Index (EYSI) <math>= \frac{\textrm{EYS}}{18}</math>[11]
Eighteen is equivalent to achieving a master's degree in most countries.

3. Income Index (II) <math>= \frac{\ln(\textrm{GNIpc}) - \ln(100)}{\ln(75,000) - \ln(100)}</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>\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)
GNIpc: Gross national income at purchasing power parity per capita
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Old method (HDI before 2010)

The HDI combined three dimensions last used in its 2009 report:

HDI trends between 1975 and 2004
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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).[12] 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\text{ index} = \frac{x - a}{b - a}</math>

where <math>a</math> and <math>b</math> are the lowest and highest values the variable <math>x</math> can attain, respectively.

The Human Development Index (HDI) then represents the uniformly weighted sum with Template:Frac contributed by each of the following factor indices:

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2019 Human Development Index (2020 report)

Template:Main The Human Development Report 2020 by the United Nations Development Programme was released on 15 December 2020, and calculates HDI values based on data collected in 2019.[13] The list comprises countries and territories with very high human development:

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Rank Country or Territory HDI
2019 data (2020 report)Template:Zero width space[14] Change over 5 years (2014)Template:Zero width space[15] 2019 data (2020 report)Template:Zero width space[14] Average annual HDI growth (2010-2019)Template:Zero width space[15]
Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.957 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.955 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.955 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.949 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.949 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.947 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.945 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.944 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.944 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.940 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.938 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.938 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.932 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.931 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.931 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.929 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.926 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.922 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.919 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.919 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.919 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.917 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.916 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.916 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.904 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.901 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.900 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.895 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.892 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.892 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.890 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.888 Template:Sort

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Rank Country or Territory HDI
2019 data (2020 report)Template:Zero width space[14] Change over 5 years (2014)Template:Zero width space[15] 2019 data (2020 report)Template:Zero width space[14] Average annual HDI growth (2010-2019)Template:Zero width space[15]
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.887 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.882 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.880 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.868 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.866 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.864 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.860 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.854 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.854 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.852 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.851 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.851 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.848 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.845 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.838 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.829 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.828 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.826 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.825 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.824 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.823 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.820 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.817 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.816 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.815 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.814 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.814 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.813 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.812 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.810 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.810 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.806 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.806 Template:Sort
Template:Sort Template:Sort Template:Flag 0.804 Template:Sort

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Inequality-adjusted HDI (2020 report)

Template:Main The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) "can be interpreted as the level of human development when inequality is accounted for. The relative difference between IHDI and HDI values is the loss due to inequality in distribution of the HDI within the country."[16] The list comprises countries and territories with very high and high human development:

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Rank Country 2019 estimates (2020 report)[16][17][18]
IHDI HDI Overall loss (%) Growth since 2010
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1 Template:Flag 0.899 0.957 6.1 Template:Increase 0.021
2 Template:Flag 0.894 0.949 5.8 Template:Increase 0.055
3 Template:Flag 0.889 0.955 6.9 Template:Increase 0.015
4 Template:Flag 0.888 0.938 5.3 Template:Increase 0.040
5 Template:Flag 0.885 0.955 7.3 Template:Increase 0.066
6 Template:Flag 0.883 0.940 6.1 Template:Increase 0.025
7 Template:Flag 0.882 0.945 6.7 Template:Increase 0.033
8 Template:Flag 0.878 0.944 7.0 Template:Increase 0.036
9 Template:Flag 0.875 0.917 4.6 Template:Increase 0.047
10 Template:Flag 0.869 0.947 8.2 Template:Increase 0.016
11 Template:Flag 0.867 0.944 8.2 Template:Increase 0.011
12 Template:Flag 0.860 0.900 4.4 Template:Increase 0.042
13 Template:Flag 0.859 0.931 7.7 Template:Increase 0.026
14 Template:Flag 0.859 0.931 7.7 NA
15 Template:Flag 0.857 0.922 7.0 Template:Increase 0.021
16 Template:Flag 0.856 0.932 8.2 Template:Increase 0.032
17 Template:Flag 0.848 0.929 8.7 Template:Increase 0.025
18 Template:Flag 0.843 0.919 8.3 Template:Increase 0.053Template:Efn
19 Template:Flag 0.829 0.882 7.1 Template:Increase 0.051
20 Template:Flag 0.826 0.916 9.8 Template:Increase 0.009
21 Template:Flag 0.824 0.949 13.2 NA
22 Template:Flag 0.823 0.895 8.0 Template:Increase 0.033Template:Efn
23 Template:Flag 0.820 0.901 9.0 Template:Increase 0.022
24 Template:Flag 0.815 0.916 11.0 Template:Increase 0.074
25 Template:Flag 0.814 0.919 11.4 Template:Increase 0.031
26 Template:Flag 0.813 0.938 13.3 NA

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Rank Country 2019 estimates (2020 report)[16][17][18]
IHDI HDI Overall loss (%) Growth since 2010
27 Template:Flag 0.813 0.880 7.6 Template:Increase 0.063
28 Template:Flag 0.808 0.926 12.7 Template:Decrease 0.004
29 Template:Flag 0.807 0.860 6.2 Template:Increase 0.032
30 Template:Flag 0.805 0.887 9.2 Template:Increase 0.048
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31 Template:Flag 0.791 0.854 7.4 Template:Increase 0.032
31 Template:Flag 0.791 0.882 10.3 Template:Increase 0.055
31 Template:Flag 0.791 0.888 10.9 Template:Increase 0.014
34 Template:Flag 0.783 0.892 12.2 Template:Increase 0.010
34 Template:Flag 0.783 0.866 9.6 Template:Increase 0.050
34 Template:Flag 0.783 0.851 8.0 Template:Increase 0.092
34 Template:Flag 0.783 0.904 13.4 Template:Decrease 0.004
38 Template:Flag 0.771 0.823 6.3 Template:Increase 0.050
39 Template:Flag 0.766 0.825 7.2 Template:Increase 0.105
40 Template:Flag 0.761 0.864 11.9 Template:Increase 0.031
41 Template:Flag 0.749 0.829 9.7 Template:Increase 0.026
42 Template:Flag 0.740 0.824 10.2 Template:Increase 0.049
43 Template:Flag 0.730 0.828 11.8 Template:Increase 0.022
44 Template:Flag 0.729 0.845 13.7 Template:Increase 0.063
45 Template:Flag 0.728 0.779 6.4 Template:Increase 0.035
46 Template:Flag 0.721 0.816 11.6 Template:Increase 0.022
47 Template:Flag 0.716 0.812 11.8 Template:Increase 0.093
48 Template:Flag 0.712 0.817 12.7 Template:Increase 0.055
49 Template:Flag 0.709 0.851 16.7 Template:Increase 0.058
50 Template:Flag 0.708 0.795 10.9 Template:Increase 0.058
51 Template:Flag 0.706 0.813 13.2 NA
52 Template:Flag 0.705 0.806 12.5 Template:Increase 0.021

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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, and Japan and Iceland 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. Template:Columns-list Template:Break

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.[19][20]

Country/region specific HDI lists

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Criticism

HDI vs. ecological footprint

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,Template:Citation needed 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.[21]

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.[21]

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 in early January 2011, the Human Development Report Office responded[22] to a 6 January 2011 article in the magazine[23] 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.[24]

See also

Indices

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Other

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Notes

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References

  1. The Human Development Index: A History. PERI Working Papers({Template:Date).
  2. Human Development Index. Economic Times. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  3. The Human Development concept. UNDP. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
  4. Human Development Index, "Composite indices — HDI and beyond", Retrieved 16 January 2021.
  5. 5.0 5.1 What is Human Development. UNDP. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  6. The Courier{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Commission of the European Communities(1994)
  7. Human Development Report 2010. UNDP(4 November 2010). Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  8. Technical notes. UNDP. Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  9. New method of calculation of Human Development Index (HDI). India Study Channel(1 June 2011). Retrieved 19 November 2017.
  10. Mean years of schooling (of adults) (years) is a calculation of the average number of years of education received by people ages 25 and older in their lifetime based on education attainment levels of the population converted into years of schooling based on theoretical duration of each level of education attended. Source: A New Data Set of Educational Attainment in the World, 1950–2010. NBER Working Paper No. 15902({Template:Year).
  11. (ESYI is a calculation of the number of years a child is expected to attend school, or university, including the years spent on repetition. It is the sum of the age-specific enrollment ratios for primary, secondary, post-secondary non-tertiary and tertiary education and is calculated assuming the prevailing patterns of age-specific enrollment rates were to stay the same throughout the child's life. Expected years of schooling is capped at 18 years. (Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2010). Correspondence on education indicators. March. Montreal.)
  12. Definition, Calculator, etc. at UNDP site. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  13. Human Development Report 2020 The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. United Nations Development Programme(15 December 2020). ISBN 978-92-1-126442-5
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Human Development Report 2020 The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. United Nations Development Programme(15 December 2020). ISBN 978-92-1-126442-5
  15. 16.0 16.1 16.2 Human Development Report 2020 The Next Frontier: Human Development and the Anthropocene{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. United Nations Development Programme(15 December 2020). ISBN 978-92-1-126442-5
  16. 17.0 17.1 Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI). hdr.undp.org. UNDP. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  17. 18.0 18.1 Human Development Report 2020 – "Human Development Indices and Indicators". HDRO (Human Development Report Office).
  18. Filling Gaps in the Human Development Index, Hastings, David A.. Retrieved 1 December 2009.
  19. A "Classic" Human Development Index with 232 Countries, Hastings, David A.. Retrieved 9 March 2011. Information Note linked to data
  20. 21.0 21.1 Classification, Detection and Consequences of Data Error: Evidence from the Human Development Index. Economic Journal({Template:Year).
  21. UNDP Human Development Report Office's comments. The Economist(January 2011). Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  22. The Economist (pages 60–61 in the issue of Jan 8, 2011)(6 January 2011). Retrieved 12 January 2011.
  23. Beyond Gdp and HDI: Shifting the focus from Paradigms to Politics. Development({Template:Year).

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