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World map of countries by Human Development Index categories in increments of 0.050 (based on 2017 data, published on 14 September 2018).

≥ 0.900   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

World map representing Human Development Index categories (based on 2017 data, published in 2018).^[1]

0.800–1.000 (very high)   0.700–0.799 (high)   0.555–0.699 (medium)

0.350–0.554 (low)   Data unavailable

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores a higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the education level is higher, and the GDP per capita is higher. It was developed by Indian Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen and Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, with help from Gustav Ranis of Yale University and Lord Meghnad Desai of the London School of Economics, and was further used to measure a country's development by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).^[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)", and "the HDI can be viewed as an index of 'potential' human development (or the maximum IHDI that could be achieved if there were no inequality)". 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.^[4]

The index is based on the human development approach, developed by Ul Haq, often framed in terms of whether people are able to "be" and "do" desirable things in life. Examples include—Being: well fed, sheltered, healthy; Doings: work, education, voting, participating in community life. The freedom of choice is central—someone choosing to be hungry (as during a religious fast) is quite different to someone who is hungry because they cannot afford to buy food.^[5]

Origins

Amartya Sen

Mahbub ul Haq

The origins of the HDI are found in the annual Human Development Reports produced by the Human Development Reports 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". To produce the Human Development Reports, Mahbub ul Haq formed a group of development economists including Paul Streeten, Frances Stewart, Gustav Ranis, Keith Griffin, Farhan C.M, Sudhir Anand, and Meghnad Desai. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen utilized Haq's work in his own work on human capabilities.^[3] 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 principle behind the Human Development Index.^[5]

Dimensions and calculation

New method (2010 Index onwards)

Published on 4 November 2010 (and updated on 10 June 2011), the 2010 Human Development Index (HDI) combines three dimensions:^[6][7]

• A long and healthy life: Life expectancy at birth
  


• 
  Education index: Mean years of schooling and Expected years of schooling


• A decent standard of living: GNI per capita (PPP US$)

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) =LE−2085−20{displaystyle ={frac {{textrm {LE}}-20}{85-20}}}

LEI is 1 when Life expectancy at birth is 85 and 0 when Life expectancy at birth is 20.

2. Education Index (EI) =MYSI+EYSI2{displaystyle ={frac {{textrm {MYSI}}+{textrm {EYSI}}}{2}}}^[8]

2.1 Mean Years of Schooling Index (MYSI) =MYS15{displaystyle ={frac {textrm {MYS}}{15}}}^[9]

Fifteen is the projected maximum of this indicator for 2025.

2.2 Expected Years of Schooling Index (EYSI) =EYS18{displaystyle ={frac {textrm {EYS}}{18}}}^[10]

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

3. Income Index (II) =ln⁡(GNIpc)−ln⁡(100)ln⁡(75,000)−ln⁡(100){displaystyle ={frac {ln({textrm {GNIpc}})-ln(100)}{ln(75,000)-ln(100)}}}

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:

HDI=LEI⋅EI⋅II3.{displaystyle {textrm {HDI}}={sqrt[{3}]{{textrm {LEI}}cdot {textrm {EI}}cdot {textrm {II}}}}.}

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

Old method (before 2010 Index)

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).^[11] In general, to transform a raw variable, say x{displaystyle 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=x−ab−a{displaystyle x{text{ index}}={frac {x-a}{b-a}}}

where a{displaystyle a} and b{displaystyle b} are the lowest and highest values the variable x{displaystyle x} 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 = LE−2585−25{displaystyle {frac {LE-25}{85-25}}}
  


• 
  Education Index = 23×ALI+13×GEI{displaystyle {frac {2}{3}}times ALI+{frac {1}{3}}times GEI}
  
  
  
  • 
    Adult Literacy Index (ALI) = ALR−0100−0{displaystyle {frac {ALR-0}{100-0}}}
    
  
  
  • 
    Gross Enrollment Index (GEI) = CGER−0100−0{displaystyle {frac {CGER-0}{100-0}}}
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  GDP = log⁡(GDPpc)−log⁡(100)log⁡(40000)−log⁡(100){displaystyle {frac {log left(GDPpcright)-log left(100right)}{log left(40000right)-log left(100right)}}}
  

Other organizations/companies may include other factors, such as infant mortality, which produces a different HDI.

2018 Human Development Index

The 2018 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on 14 September 2018, and calculates HDI values based on estimates for 2017.^[12] Below is the list of the "very high human development" countries:^[12]

• 
  = increase.


• 
  = steady.


• 
  = decrease.

Rank Country/Territory HDI 2018 rankings [1] Change in rank from previous year[1] 2018 HDI [1] Change from previous year [1] 1  Norway 0.953 0.002 2   Switzerland 0.944 0.001 3  Australia 0.939 0.001 4  Ireland 0.938 0.004 5 (1)  Germany 0.936 0.002 6  Iceland 0.935 0.002 7 (1)  Hong Kong 0.933 0.003 7  Sweden 0.933 0.001 9 (1)  Singapore 0.932 0.002 10  Netherlands 0.931 0.003 11 (1)  Denmark 0.929 0.001 12  Canada 0.926 0.004 13 (1)  United States 0.924 0.002 14  United Kingdom 0.922 0.002 15  Finland 0.920 0.002 16  New Zealand 0.917 0.002 17 (1)  Belgium 0.916 0.001 17 (1)  Liechtenstein 0.916 0.001 19  Japan 0.909 0.002 20  Austria 0.908 0.002 21  Luxembourg 0.904 0.001 22  Israel 0.903 0.001 22 (1)  South Korea 0.903 0.003 24  France 0.901 0.002 25  Slovenia 0.896 0.002 26  Spain 0.891 0.002 27  Czech Republic 0.888 0.003 28  Italy 0.880 0.002 29  Malta 0.878 0.003 30  Estonia 0.871 0.003

Rank Country HDI 2018 rankings [1] Change in rank from previous year[1] 2018 rankings [1] Change from previous year [1] 31 (1)  Greece 0.870 0.002 32  Cyprus 0.869 0.002 33 (1)  Poland 0.865 0.005 34 (1)  United Arab Emirates 0.863 0.001 35  Andorra 0.858 0.002 35 (1)  Lithuania 0.858 0.003 37 (1)  Qatar 0.856 0.001 38 (1)  Slovakia 0.855 0.002 39 (1)  Brunei 0.853 0.001 39 (1)  Saudi Arabia 0.853 0.001 41 (2)  Latvia 0.847 0.003 42 (1)  Portugal 0.847 0.002 43 (2)  Bahrain 0.846 44  Chile 0.843 0.001 45  Hungary 0.838 0.003 46  Croatia 0.831 0.003 47  Argentina 0.825 0.003 48 (1)  Oman 0.821 0.001 49  Russia 0.816 0.001 50  Montenegro 0.814 0.004 51 (1)  Bulgaria 0.813 0.003 52  Romania 0.811 0.004 53 (1)  Belarus 0.808 0.003 54 (1)  Bahamas 0.807 0.001 55 (1)  Uruguay 0.804 0.002 56 (1)  Kuwait 0.803 0.001 57  Malaysia 0.802 0.003 58 (1)  Barbados 0.800 0.001 58 (2)  Kazakhstan 0.800 0.003

Inequality-adjusted HDI

The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)^[13] is a "measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account".

The rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data (p. 30).

Countries in the top quartile of HDI ("very high human development" group) with a missing IHDI: Taiwan, Liechtenstein, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Andorra, Qatar, Brunei, Bahrain, Oman, Bahamas, Kuwait and Malaysia.

2016 Human Development Index

The 2016 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on 21 March 2017, and calculates HDI values based on estimates for 2015. Below is the list of the "very high human development" countries:^[14]

• 
  = increase.


• 
  = steady.


• 
  = decrease.

Rank		Country or region	Score
2016 estimates for 2015 [15]	Change in rank from previous year[15]		2016 estimates for 2015 [15]	Change from previous year [15]
1		Norway	0.949	0.001
2		Australia	0.939	0.002
2		Switzerland	0.939	0.001
4	(2)	Germany	0.926	0.002
5	(1)	Denmark	0.925	0.002
5	(6)	Singapore	0.925	0.013
7	(1)	Netherlands	0.924	0.001
8		Ireland	0.923	0.003
9	(7)	Iceland	0.921	0.002
10	(1)	Canada	0.920	0.001
10	(2)	United States	0.920	0.002
12		Hong Kong	0.917	0.001
13	(4)	New Zealand	0.915	0.002
14	(1)	Sweden	0.913	0.004
15	(1)	Liechtenstein	0.912	0.001
16	(4)	United Kingdom	0.909	0.003
17	(3)	Japan	0.903	0.001
18		South Korea	0.901	0.002
19		Israel	0.899	0.001
20		Luxembourg	0.898	0.002
21	(1)	France	0.897	0.003
22	(1)	Belgium	0.896	0.001
23		Finland	0.895	0.002
24		Austria	0.893	0.001
25	(2)	Spain	0.892	0.005
26		Slovenia	0.890	0.002
27	(1)	Italy	0.887	0.006
28		Czech Republic	0.878	0.003
29		Greece	0.866	0.001
30	(10)	Slovakia	0.865	0.020
31	(1)	Estonia	0.865	0.002
32		Andorra	0.858	0.001
33	(1)	Cyprus	0.856	0.002
33	(2)	Malta	0.856	0.003
33		Qatar	0.856	0.001
36		Poland	0.855	0.003
37		Lithuania	0.848	0.002
38	(4)	Chile	0.847	0.002
38		Saudi Arabia	0.847	0.002
41		Portugal	0.843	0.002
42		United Arab Emirates	0.840	0.004
43		Hungary	0.836	0.002
44		Latvia	0.830	0.002
45	(5)	Argentina	0.827	0.001
45	(1)	Croatia	0.827	0.004
47	(1)	Bahrain	0.824	0.001
48	(1)	Montenegro	0.807	0.003
49	(1)	Russia	0.804	0.001
50	(1)	Romania	0.802	0.004
51	(1)	Kuwait	0.800	0.001

Inequality-adjusted HDI

The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)^[16] is a "measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account".

The rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data (p. 206).

Countries in the top quartile of HDI ("very high human development" group) with a missing IHDI: Taiwan, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Liechtenstein, Brunei, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Andorra, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

2015 Human Development Index

The 2015 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on 14 December 2015, and calculates HDI values based on estimates for 2014. Below is the list of the "very high human development" countries:^[17][18][19]

• 
  = increase.


• 
  = steady.


• 
  = decrease.

Rank		Country	Score
2015 estimates for 2014 [20]	Change in rank from previous year[20]		2015 estimates for 2014 [20]	Change from previous year [20]
1		Norway	0.944	0.002
2		Australia	0.935	0.002
3		Switzerland	0.930	0.002
4		Denmark	0.923
5		Netherlands	0.922	0.002
6		Germany	0.916	0.001
6	(2)	Ireland	0.916	0.004
8	(1)	United States	0.915	0.002
9	(1)	Canada	0.913	0.001
9	(1)	New Zealand	0.913	0.002
11	(2)	Singapore	0.912	0.003
12		Hong Kong	0.910	0.002
13		Liechtenstein	0.908	0.001
14		Sweden	0.907	0.002
14	(1)	United Kingdom	0.907	0.005
16		Iceland	0.899
17		South Korea	0.898	0.003
18		Israel	0.894	0.001
18		Macau	0.894	[21]
19		Luxembourg	0.892	0.002
20	(1)	Japan	0.891	0.001
21		Belgium	0.890	0.002
22		France	0.888	0.001
23		Austria	0.885	0.001
24		Finland	0.883	0.001
25		Taiwan	0.882	[22]
26		Slovenia	0.880	0.001
27		Spain	0.876	0.002
28		Italy	0.873
29		Czech Republic	0.870	0.002
30		Greece	0.865	0.002
31		Estonia	0.861	0.002
32		Brunei	0.856	0.004
33		Cyprus	0.850
33	(1)	Qatar	0.850	0.001
34		Andorra	0.845	0.001
35	(1)	Slovakia	0.844	0.005
36	(1)	Poland	0.843	0.003
37		Lithuania	0.839	0.002
37		Malta	0.839	0.002
39		Saudi Arabia	0.837	0.001
40		Argentina	0.836	0.003
41	(1)	United Arab Emirates	0.835	0.002
42		Chile	0.832	0.002
43		Portugal	0.830	0.002
44		Hungary	0.828	0.003
45		Bahrain	0.824	0.003
46	(1)	Latvia	0.819	0.003
47	(1)	Croatia	0.818	0.001
48	(1)	Kuwait	0.816
49		Montenegro	0.802	0.001

Inequality-adjusted HDI

The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)^[17] is a "measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account".

Note: The green arrows (), red arrows (), and blue dashes () represent changes in rank. The rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data (p. 216).

Countries in the top quartile of HDI ("very high human development" group) with a missing IHDI: Taiwan, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Liechtenstein, Brunei, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Andorra, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Cuba, and Kuwait.

2014 Human Development Index

The 2014 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on 24 July 2014 and calculates HDI values based on estimates for 2013. Below is the list of the "very high human development" countries or regions:^[23][18][19]

• 
  = increase.


• 
  = steady.


• 
  = decrease.

Rank		Country or Region	HDI
New 2014 estimates for 2013 [24]	Change in rank between 2014 report and 2013 report[24]		New 2014 estimates for 2013 [24]	Change compared between 2014 report and 2013 report [24]
1		Norway	0.944	0.011
2		Australia	0.933	0.002
3		Switzerland	0.917	0.001
4		Netherlands	0.915
5		United States	0.914	0.002
6		Germany	0.911
7		New Zealand	0.910	0.002
8		Canada	0.902	0.001
9	(3)	Singapore	0.901	0.002
10		Denmark	0.900
11	(3)	Ireland	0.899	0.017
12	(1)	Sweden	0.898	0.001
13		Iceland	0.895	0.002
14		United Kingdom	0.892	0.002
14		Macau	0.892	[21]
15		Hong Kong	0.891	0.002
15	(1)	South Korea	0.891	0.003
17	(1)	Japan	0.890	0.002
18	(2)	Liechtenstein	0.889	0.001
19		Israel	0.888	0.002
20		France	0.884
21		Taiwan	0.882	[22]
22		Austria	0.881	0.001
22		Belgium	0.881	0.001
22		Luxembourg	0.881	0.001
23		Finland	0.879
24		Slovenia	0.874
25		Italy	0.872
26		Spain	0.869
27		Czech Republic	0.861
28		Greece	0.853	0.001
29		Brunei	0.852
30		Qatar	0.851	0.001
31		Cyprus	0.845	0.003
32		Estonia	0.840	0.001
33		Saudi Arabia	0.836	0.003
34	(1)	Lithuania	0.834	0.003
34	(1)	Poland	0.834	0.001
35		Andorra	0.830
35	(1)	Slovakia	0.830	0.001
36		Malta	0.829	0.002
37		United Arab Emirates	0.827	0.002
38	(1)	Chile	0.822	0.003
38		Portugal	0.822
39		Hungary	0.818	0.001
40		Bahrain	0.815	0.002
40		Cuba	0.815	0.002
41	(2)	Kuwait	0.814	0.001
42		Croatia	0.812
43		Latvia	0.810	0.002
44		Argentina	0.808	0.002

Countries not included

Some countries were not included for various reasons, primarily due to the lack of necessary data. The following United Nations Member States were not included in the 2014 report:^[23]North Korea, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Nauru, San Marino, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Tuvalu.

Inequality-adjusted HDI

The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI)^[23] is a "measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account".

Note: The green arrows (), red arrows (), and blue dashes () represent changes in rank. The rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data (p. 168).

Countries in the top quartile of HDI ("very high human development" group) with a missing IHDI: Taiwan, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Liechtenstein, Brunei, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Andorra, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Cuba, and Kuwait.

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 fourteen times, Canada eight times, and Japan three times. Iceland has been ranked highest twice.

In each original HDI

The year represents when the report was published. In parentheses is the year for which the index was calculated.

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.^[25][26]

Country/region specific HDI lists

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, 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.^[27]

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.^[27]

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^[28] to a 6 January 2011 article in the magazine^[29] 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.^[30]

See also

Indices

Other

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Human Development Index.

• Human Development Index


• Human Development Tools and Rankings


• 
  "Technical note explaining the definition of the HDI" (PDF). (5.54 MB)
  


• New demographic datasets by 'Human Development Index (HDI)’


• An independent HDI covering 232 countries, formulated along the lines of the traditional (pre-2010) approach.