Human Development Index
Recently it has become increasingly common to hear clever talk about the fact that the human development index (HDI) in a particular state is low, or on the contrary, high. We offer to deal with what it is, because we are talking, of course, about the scientific facts!
It all started in 1990. That is when a group of economists, led by the Pakistani Mahbub-ul-Haq, developed the index.
The Human Development Index is used to compare the main indicators of living standards, longevity, education and literacy of different countries. That is, it is a kind of coefficient of performance of human global development.
Before determining the HDI, researchers take into account the following factors:
Life expectancy.
Literacy of the population (quality and coverage).
Standard of living as measured by gross national income per capita.
The UN publishes annual Human Development Index reports.
We should only add that conventionally the HDI is classified into 4 groups:
Very high index – 42 countries.
High index – 43 countries.
Medium index – 42 countries.
Low index – 42 countries.
You can see what this looks like by looking at an example of the 2013 report. The first 32 countries with a very high human development index are listed:
Of course, this indicator has some valid criticism. The fact is that its calculations do not take into account the environmental situation in the country. In addition, the political regime is also in no way indicated in the HDI.
And if we assume that a person will live like “cheese in butter” but deprived of any freedom (for example, freedom of speech), it is hardly possible to objectively consider the human development index in this state to be high. However, according to this methodology, it will be so.
Be that as it may, the HDI indicators objectively tell us a lot.