Human Development Index
- The initials HDI may also refer to the Help Desk Institute
| ██ 0.950 and higher ██ 0.900-0.949 ██ 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 | ██ 0.350-0.399 ██ 0.300-0.349 ██ lower than 0.300 ██ n/a </tr> | </table>
Contents |
Method used to calculate the Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) represents the average of the following three indices:
- Life Expectancy Index = <math>\frac{LE - 25} {85 - 25}</math>
- Education Index = <math>\frac{2} {3} \times ALI + \frac{1} {3} \times GEI</math>
- Adult Literacy Index (ALI) = <math>\frac{ALR - 0} {100 - 0}</math>
- Gross Enrolment Index (GEI) = <math>\frac{CGER - 0} {100 - 0}</math>
- GDP Index = <math>\frac{\log(GDPpc) - \log(100)} {\log(40000) - \log(100)}</math>
The subtractions are necessary to subtract "minimum values" from each index. For instance, the minimum life expectancy a country can have is 25, so 25 is subtracted from both the LE index and the maximum LE of 85.
LE: Life expectancy
ALR: Adult literacy rate
CGER: Combined gross enrolment ratio
GDPpc: GDP 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: Sub-Saharan Africa and Post-Soviet states, both of which showed steady decline. HIV/AIDS is seen as the principal cause of the decline in the first group, while worsening education, economies, and mortality rates caused declines in the HDIs amongst the latter 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 and Montenegro, Somalia and Taiwan. While these countries are either unwilling or unable to provide data, they are generally considered countries of medium to low human development, with the exception of Taiwan (see below).
In the first 21 positions there is a gradual drop from 0,936 to 0,928, followed by a somewhat faster drop to 0,878 for position 30 and another gradual drop to 0,720 at position 107. After that, there is an intermittent rapid drop to 0,281 at the lowest position of 177. Note that until position 107 there is an average drop of about 0,002 points per position. Below that the drop is much higher at 0,007 per position.
A score below 0,5 is considered to represent a low development and all 32 countries in that zone are located in Africa, with the exception of Haiti and Yemen. Even the highest-scoring Sub-Saharan country, South Africa is at position 120, albeit with a score of 0,658, which is well above most other countries in the region.
A score of over 0,8 is considered to represent a high development. The top of the list is dominated by (Northern) European (especially Scandinavian) countries, with the notable exceptions of Australia, Canada, USA and Japan. French depedencies often stand out as having the highest rating in the region, such as New Caledonia and French Guyana, but do not appear on the list because they are rated with France. Other countries that stand out in their region by having a high score (over 0,8), excluding micro-nations, are (with their position) Korea (28), Costa Rica (47), Cuba (52) and Panama (56).
Note: Number in parentheses indicates change in rank since last report.
Top thirty countries
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Bottom ten countries
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Top/bottom three countries by region
| Africa 51. | Asia 11. | Europe 1. |
| North America 5. | Oceania 3. | South America 34. |
Past top countries
The number one ranked country in each year of the index.
Countries not included
The following countries are not ranked in the 2005 Human Development Index.
| Africa | Asia | Europe | Oceania |
* The Republic of China (Taiwan) has calculated its HDI to be 0.910 for 2003 based on the following data: life expectancy of 76.1 years, adult literacy rate of 97.0%, combined gross enrolment rate of 97%, and GDP per capita (PPP) of US$23,911. If included among UN HDI figures, Taiwan would rank 25th: behind Greece and in front of Singapore. [1]
See also
- Freedom House
- List of countries by Human Development Index
- United Nations
- Gini coefficient
- List of countries by income equality
- Physical quality-of-life index
- List of countries by GDP (PPP) per capita
External links
- All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License (see Copyrights for details).
- Original version is at en.wikipedia.org wiki
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