Human Development Index [HDI]

The Human Development Index (HDI) is an index used to rank the countries on the basis of developed, developing, or underdeveloped country based upon human development in that country.

It is being used since 1990. The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and India’s Nobel prize Winner Economist Amartya Sen [Noble prize winner of 1998]

It is prepared by UNDP (United Nations Development Programme)

It is a composite of 3 factors:

• Life Expectancy at birth or life expectancy at birth also called LEI (Life Expectancy Index)
• Standard of Knowledge & Education : Adult Literacy Rate also called EAI (Education Attainment Index) given 2/3 priority and Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) given 1/3 priority (weight age)
• Standard of living measured by natural logarithm of gross domestic product per capita also called SLI (Standard of Living Index)

The latest report is of year 2008. It was a new index was released on December 18, 2008. It was called “statistical update” and it covers the period up to 2006 and was originally published without an accompanying report on human development. The update is relevant due to newly released estimates of purchasing power parities (PPP), implying substantial adjustments for many countries, resulting in changes in HDI values and, in many cases, HDI ranks. Here are the salient features of this report (memorable points):-

1. It was launched in December 2008
2. It includes 177 UN members plus Hong Kong plus Palestinian territories.
3. Countries fall into three broad categories based on their HDI: high, medium and low human development.
4. Iceland is the top of this list with HDI of 0.968.
5. India’s Rank is 134 with HDI of 0.609 [it was 132^th in 2008 with HDI of 0.619]
6. Top 5 countries are Iceland, Norway, Canada, Australia and Ireland
7. Japan Tops the list in Asia (0.956)
8. Libya Tops the list in Africa (0.840)
9. Canada has an Higher HDI (0.967) than USA (0.950)
10. Since 1990, Japan, Norway, Iceland & Canada only have been able to get a top slot in this index