Human Development Index
Encyclopedia : H : HU : HUM : Human Development Index
- For other uses of the abbreviation HDI, see HDI (disambiguation).
The UN Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, childbirth, and other factors for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used by many people to distinguish whether or not the country is a first, second, or third world country. The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, and has been used since 1993 by the United Nations Development Programme in its annual Human Development Report.
The HDI measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development:
- A long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth.
- Knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weight) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weight).
- A decent standard of living, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) in USD.
An alternative measure, focusing on the amount of poverty in a country, is the Human Poverty Index.
Method used to calculate the Human Development Index
In general to transform a raw variable, say [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 = [\frac ]
The Human Development Index (HDI) then represents the average of the following three general indices:
- Life Expectancy Index = [\frac ]
- Education Index = [\frac \times ALI + \frac \times GEI]
- * Adult Literacy Index (ALI) = [\frac ]
- * Gross Enrollment Index (GEI) = [\frac ]
- GDP Index = [\frac ]
ALR: Adult literacy rate
CGER: Combined gross enrollment ratio
GDPpc: GNP per capita at PPP in USD
2005 report
The report for 2005 shows that, in general, the HDI for countries around the world is improving, with two major exceptions: Post-Soviet states, and Sub-Saharan Africa, both of which show steady decline. Worsening education, economies, and mortality rates have contributed to HDI declines amongst countries in the first group, while HIV/AIDS and concomitant mortality is the principal cause of decline in the second group.
Most of the data used for the 2005 report, indicating country HDIs for 2003, are derived largely from 2003 or earlier. Not all UN member states choose to or are able to provide the necessary statistics. Notable absences from the list (excluding micro-states) are Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia, North Korea, Serbia, Montenegro, and Somalia. While these countries are either unwilling or unable to provide data, they are generally considered countries of medium to low human development.
An HDI below 0.5 is considered to represent low development and 30 of the 32 countries in that category are located in Africa, with the exceptions of Haiti and Yemen. The bottom ten countries are all in Africa. The highest-scoring Sub-Saharan country, South Africa, is ranked 120th (with an HDI of 0.658), which is well above most other countries in the region.
An HDI 0.8 or more is considered to represent high development. This includes countries of northern and western Europe, Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Canada, United States, the Republic of China (Taiwan), Japan and South Korea. Other countries that exhibit high human development amidst countries with lower HDIs include (with their position) Costa Rica (47th), Cuba (52nd), Mexico (53rd) and Panama (56th).