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50-637: The Human Development Report ( HDR ) is an annual Human Development Index report published by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The first HDR was launched in 1990 by the Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen . Since then reports have been released most years, and have explored different themes through
100-521: A "distribution-sensitive measure that accounts for the human development impact of existing gender gaps in the three components of the HDI" (Klasen 243). Distribution sensitivity means that the GDI takes into account not only the average or general level of well-being and wealth within a given country but focuses also on how this wealth and well-being is distributed between different groups within society. The HDI and
150-499: A change in the methodology used to calculate the indexes using better statistical methods, as well as new parameters for judging the growth and development. The first Human Development Report introduced its pioneering HDI and analyzed previous decades of development indicators, concluding that "there is no automatic link between economic growth and human progress." The 2010 Report's rigorous review of longer-term trends—looking back at HDI indicators for most countries from 1970—showed there
200-468: A country's carbon dioxide emissions and material footprint. In his foreword to the report, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said that "humans wield more power over the planet than ever before. In the wake of COVID-19, record-breaking temperatures and spiraling inequality, it is time to use that power to redefine what we mean by progress, where our carbon and consumption footprints are no longer hidden." Numerous highly developed wealthy countries plummeted as
250-576: A country's development status. They 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. Wolff, Chong and Auffhammer suggest that the United Nations should discontinue the practice of classifying countries into development bins because the cut-off values seem arbitrary, and the classifications can provide incentives for strategic behavior in reporting official statistics, as well as having
300-560: A development score penalty for gender wander gaps in any of the categories of the Human Development Index (HDI) which include life expectancy, adult literacy , school enrollment, and logarithmic transformations of per-capita income. In terms of life expectancy, the GDI assumes that women will live an average of five years longer than men. Additionally, in terms of income, the GDI considers income gaps in terms of actual earned income. The GDI cannot be used independently from
350-530: A number of grounds, including 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 of "low", "medium", "high" or "very high" human development countries. There have also been various criticism towards the lack of consideration regarding sustainability (which later got addressed by
400-515: A result of their environmental impact, such as the United States, which dropped 45 places. By contrast, countries with lighter footprints such as Costa Rica, Moldova and Panama move up the index by roughly 30 places. Source: Human Development Index The Human Development Index ( HDI ) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy , education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering
450-437: Is a measure of average achievement in the basic dimensions of human development across countries, and a compendium of key development statistics relevant to the report theme. The Human Development Reports have an extensive influence on the development debate worldwide. They have also inspired national and regional analyses which, by their nature, usually address issues that are more country – or regionally – specific. The report
500-656: Is an index designed to measure gender equality . GDI, together with the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM), was introduced in 1995 in the Human Development Report written by the United Nations Development Program . These measurements aimed to add a gender-sensitive dimension to the Human Development Index (HDI). The first measurement that they created as a result was the GDI. The GDI is defined as
550-412: Is considered central — someone choosing to be hungry (e.g. when fasting for religious reasons ) is considered different from someone who is hungry because they cannot afford to buy food, or because the country is going through a famine . 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
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#1732765913253600-430: Is extraordinarily unequal and that this is a major driver for the movement of people. The 2010 Human Development Report—The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development—showed through a detailed new analysis of long-term Human Development Index (HDI) trends that most developing countries made dramatic yet often underestimated progress in health, education and basic living standards in recent decades, with many of
650-659: Is no consistent correlation between national economic performance and achievement in the non-income HDI areas of health and education. Overall, as shown in the Report's analysis of all countries for which complete HDI data are available for the past 40 years, life expectancy climbed from 59 years in 1970 to 70 in 2010, school enrollment rose from just 55 percent of all primary and secondary school-age children to 70 percent, and per capita GDP doubled to more than US$ 10,000. People in all regions shared in this progress, though to varying degrees. Life expectancy, for example, rose by 18 years in
700-486: Is particularly criticized for being often mistakenly interpreted as an independent measure of gender gaps when it is not, in fact, intended to be interpreted in that way, because it can only be used in combination with the scores from the Human Development Index, but not on its own. Additionally, the data that is needed in order to calculate the GDI is not always readily available in many countries, making
750-617: Is the year when the report was published. 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. The Human Development Index has been criticized on
800-560: The Gender Inequality Index , and the Multidimensional Poverty Index . Each Report has its own focus drawn from contemporary debate. The 2009 Human Development Report, Overcoming Barriers , focused on migration – both within and beyond borders. It was chosen because it is a prominent theme in domestic and international debates. Its starting point is that the global distribution of capabilities
850-461: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)'s Human Development Report Office. 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 this inequality ), while the HDI can be viewed as an index of 'potential' human development (or
900-414: The education system ), and per capita income indicators, which is 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
950-494: The first report in 1990. "The basic objective of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy and creative lives. This may appear to be a simple truth. But it is often forgotten in the immediate concern with the accumulation of commodities and financial wealth." The United Nations General Assembly has formally recognized the Report as "an independent intellectual exercise" and "an important tool for raising awareness about human development around
1000-481: 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: The Human Development Report 2023/24 by the United Nations Development Programme was released on 13 March 2024; the report calculates HDI values based on data collected in 2022. Ranked from 1 to 69 in
1050-488: The planetary pressures-adjusted HDI ), social inequality (which got addressed by the inequality-adjusted HDI ), unemployment or democracy . 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 have identified three sources of data error which are: (i) data updating, (ii) formula revisions and (iii) thresholds to classify
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#17327659132531100-1222: The 2010 Human Development Report calculated the HDI combining three dimensions: 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 − 20 85 − 20 = LE − 20 65 {\displaystyle ={\frac {{\textrm {LE}}-20}{85-20}}={\frac {{\textrm {LE}}-20}{65}}} 2. Education Index (EI) = MYSI + EYSI 2 {\displaystyle ={\frac {{\textrm {MYSI}}+{\textrm {EYSI}}}{2}}} 3. Income Index (II) = ln ( GNIpc ) − ln ( 100 ) ln ( 75 , 000 ) − ln ( 100 ) = ln ( GNIpc ) − ln ( 100 ) ln ( 750 ) {\displaystyle ={\frac {\ln({\textrm {GNIpc}})-\ln(100)}{\ln(75,000)-\ln(100)}}={\frac {\ln({\textrm {GNIpc}})-\ln(100)}{\ln(750)}}} Finally,
1150-586: The Arab states between 1970 and 2010, compared to eight years in sub-Saharan Africa. The 135 countries studied include 92 percent of the world's population. The "Top 10 Movers" highlighted in the 2010 Report—those countries among the 135 that improved most in HDI terms over the past 40 years—were led by Oman, which invested energy earnings over the decades in education and public health. The other nine " Top Movers " are China, Nepal, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Laos, Tunisia, South Korea, Algeria and Morocco. Remarkably, China
1200-451: The GDI (as well as the GEM) were created to rival the more traditional general income-based measures of development such as gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP). The GDI is often considered a "gender-sensitive extension of the HDI" (Klasen 245). It addresses gender gaps in life expectancy, education, and income. It uses an "inequality aversion" penalty, which creates
1250-585: The GDI life expectancy section is adjusted by assuming that women will automatically live five years longer than men. This provision has been criticized on multiple grounds; e.g. it has been argued that if the GDI was really looking to promote true equality, it would strive to attain the same life expectancy for women and men, despite what might be considered a "normalized" advantage. In terms of policy, this could be achieved through providing better treatment to men, which women's rights organizations sometimes argue to be discriminatory against women. Critics also argue that
1300-522: The HDI is the geometric mean of the previous three normalized indices: 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, incl. young men and women aged 13–17) GNIpc: Gross national income at purchasing power parity per capita The HDI combined three dimensions last used in its 2009 report: This methodology
1350-400: The HDI score, and so, it cannot be used on its own as an indicator of gender gaps. Only the gap between the HDI and the GDI can actually be accurately considered; the GDI on its own is not an independent measure of gender gaps. Below is a list of countries by their Gender Development Index, based on data collected in 2018, and published in 2019. Countries are grouped into five groups based on
1400-735: The HDI tradition of measurement innovation by introducing new indices that address crucial development factors not directly reflected in the HDI: The 2020 report asserts that immense human pressures on the planet have ushered in a new geological epoch , the Anthropocene , or the Age of Humans. As such, the report introduces a new index to account for these pressures, the Planetary-Pressures Adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI), which includes
1450-466: The UN provides a number of strategies and plans giving preferential treatment to women and girls that are not seen as discriminatory towards men ─ not only for health issues but also for education and job opportunities. Furthermore, it has been argued that the GDI does not account for sex-selective abortion , meaning that the penalty levied against a country for gender inequality is smaller as it affects less of
1500-499: 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
1550-586: The absolute deviation from gender parity in HDI values, from 1 (closest to gender parity) to 5 (furthest from gender parity). This means that grouping takes equally into consideration gender gaps favoring males, as well as those favoring females. In the years since its creation in 1995, much debate has arisen surrounding the reliability, and usefulness of the Gender Development Index (GDI) in making adequate comparisons between different countries and in promoting gender-sensitive development. The GDI
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1600-483: 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. Gender-related Development Index The Gender Development Index ( GDI )
1650-488: The earned-income gap accounts for more than 90% of the gender penalty. As was suggested by Halis Akder in 1994, one alternative to the Gender Development Index (GDI) would be the calculation of a separate male and female Human Development Index (HDI). Another suggested alternative is the Gender Gap Measure which could be interpreted directly as a measure of gender inequality, instead of having to be compared to
1700-416: The focus of development economics from national income accounting to people-centered policies ". He 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 . Published on 4 November 2010 (and updated on 10 June 2011),
1750-520: The human development approach, which places people at the center of the development process. The reports are ensured of editorial independence by the United Nations General Assembly . They are seen as reports to UNDP, not of UNDP. This allows each report greater freedom to explore ideas and constructively challenge policies. Each report also presents an updated set of indices, including the Human Development Index (HDI), which
1800-457: The informal sector (such as cleaning, cooking, housework, and childcare). Another criticism of the GDI is that it only takes gender into account as a factor for inequality; it does not, however, consider inequality among class, region or race, which could be very significant. Another criticism with the income-gap portion of the GDI is that it is heavily dependent on gross domestic product (GDP) and gross national product (GNP). For most countries,
1850-520: The maximum level of HDI) that could be achieved if there was no inequality." The index is based on the human development approach, developed by Mahbub ul-Haq, anchored in Amartya Sen 's work on human capabilities, and often framed in terms of whether people are able to "be" and "do" desirable things in life. Examples include — being: well-fed, sheltered, and healthy; doing: work, education, voting, participating in community life. The freedom of choice
1900-476: The measure very hard to calculate uniformly and internationally. There is also worry that the combination of so many different developmental influences in one measurement could result in muddled results and that perhaps the GDI (and the GEM) actually hide more than they reveal. More specifically, there has been a lot of criticism over the Life-Expectancy component of the GDI. As was mentioned previously,
1950-513: The poorest countries posting the greatest gains. In the 2010 Report, the Sultanate of Oman was reported to be the most improved country in the past 40 years out of the 135 countries assessed (the report reported on improvement in the period 1970–2010). Oman's strides in education, women empowerment and health care under the patronage of the current Sultan of Oman led to it securing the 1st position. Several new indices have been introduced over
2000-574: The poorest countries posting the greatest gains. Yet patterns of achievement vary greatly, with some countries losing ground since 1970, the 2010 Human Development Report shows. Introducing three new indices, the 20th anniversary edition of the report documented wide inequalities within and among countries, deep disparities between women and men on a wide range of development indicators, and the prevalence of extreme multidimensional poverty in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The new report also included
2050-426: The population (see Sen, Missing Women). Another area of debate surrounding the GDI is in the area of income gaps. The GDI considers income-gaps in terms of actual earned income. This has been said to be problematic because often, men may make more money than women, but their income is shared. Additionally, the GDI has been criticized because it does not consider the value of care work as well as other work performed in
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2100-436: The potential to misguide politicians, investors, charity donors and the public who use the HDI at large. In 2010, the UNDP reacted to the criticism by updating 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 to an article published in the magazine on 6 January 2011 which discusses
2150-450: The ranking of some of the most developed countries , such as the G7 members and others. 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 annual reports were devised and launched by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul-Haq in 1990, and had the explicit purpose "to shift
2200-460: The ten-volume Arab Human Development Report series, which have made internationally recognized contributions to the global dialogue on democracy , women's rights, inequality, poverty eradication and other critical issues. The 2010 Human Development Report 's review of human development trends showed that most developing countries made dramatic yet often underestimated progress in health, education and basic living standards since 1970 with many of
2250-707: The world." The Human Development Report is an independent report, commissioned by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and is the product of a selected team of leading scholars, development practitioners and members of the Human Development Report Office of UNDP. It is a report independent of the Administrator of the UNDP, as suggested by Mahbub ul Haq. It is translated into numerous languages and launched in more than 100 countries annually. Since 1990, more than 140 countries have published some 600 national Human Development Reports, with UNDP support. UNDP has also sponsored scores of regional reports, such as
2300-427: The year 2022, the following countries are considered to be of "very high human development": 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 Switzerland, Japan, and Iceland have each ranked twice. The year represents the time period from which the statistics for the index were derived. In parentheses
2350-671: The years in different reports, including the Human Development Index , the Gender-related Development Index , the Gender Empowerment Measure , the Human Poverty Index . The Gender-related Development Index , the Gender Empowerment Measure and the Human Poverty Index were removed in 2010. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced three new indices the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index ,
2400-473: Was first launched in 1990 by the Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen . Its goal was to place people at the center of the development process in terms of economic debate, policy and advocacy. Development was characterized by the provision of choices and freedoms resulting in widespread outcomes. "People are the real wealth of a nation," Haq wrote in the opening lines of
2450-498: Was the only country that made the "Top 10" list due solely to income performance; the main drivers of HDI achievement were in health and education. The next 10 leaders in HDI improvement over the past 40 years include several low-income but high HID-achieving countries "not typically described as success stories," the Report notes, among them Ethiopia (#11), Cambodia (#15) and Benin (#18)—all of which made big gains in education and public health. The 2010 Human Development Report continued
2500-570: Was used by the UNDP until their 2011 report. The formula defining the HDI is promulgated by the United Nations Development Programme ( UNDP ). 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: where a {\displaystyle a} and b {\displaystyle b} are
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