The Human Development Index (HDI) is an index that measures key dimensions of human development. The three key dimensions are: Show
– A long and healthy life – measured by life expectancy. – Access to education – measured by expected years of schooling of children at school-entry age and mean years of schooling of the adult population. – And a decent standard of living – measured by Gross National Income per capita adjusted for the price level of the country. This entry provides a basic overview of the Human Development Index over the last decades using the standard HDI methodology of the UNDP. In addition we are looking at long-term development by relying on the Historical Index of Human Development (HIHD), developed by historian Leandro Prados de la Escosura. The metrics of the HDI and HIHD are similar, but differ slightly in how they are used to derive the development index – details on these measures can be found in the section below. On all aspects Our World in Data offers research and data in dedicated entries: Here is the Our World in Data entry on life expectancy. Here are our entries on Literacy and the Global Rise of Education. And GNI per capita we discuss in our entry on Economic Growth. All our interactive charts on Human Development Index (HDI)
Chart 1 of 11 The Human Development Index around the worldThe HDI data is regularly published by the United Nations Development Programme. The differences across the world are very large, ranging from the highest values in North America, Europe, Japan, and Oceania to the lowest in central Africa. To explore the change over time you can move the timeline slider below the map.  Click to open interactive version Human development over timeIn this section Long run perspective from the Historical Index of Human DevelopmentThe economic historian Leandro Prados de la Escosura calculated the HDI over the course of two centuries. He refers to it as the ‘Historical Index of Human Development’. This data is shown here to give a long run perspective on human development. As always on Our World in Data, you can add any other country to the chart. Click to open interactive version Country-by-country perspective over the last three decadesThe HDI is published by the United Nations Development Programme and this data is shown in the time-series chart here. Add other countries to see the change over time or compare development between countries. Click to open interactive version The components of the HDIIn this section HealthLife expectancyThe first component of the HDI – a long and healthy life – is measured by life expectancy. Long-run estimates of life expectancy across the world are shown in the visualization. For countries where historical records are available, such as the UK, estimates can extend as far back as 1543 – click on the UK to see this long-run perspective. Global and regional estimates extend back to the year 1770. This dataset is based on a combination of data from the Clio Infra project, the UN Population Division, and global and estimates for world regions from James Riley (2005). You find more research in our entry on Life Expectancy. Click to open interactive version EducationExpected and average years of schoolingThe second component – access to education – is measured by expected years of schooling of children at school-entry age and mean years of schooling of the adult population. Education has been one of the most integral drivers and outcomes of global development. The provision of education is now viewed in most parts of the world as a basic right – with pressure on governments to ensure high-quality education for all. There are many metrics we can use to assess education access, quality, and attainment – we cover many of them throughout our work on education. The visualizations present the two metrics that the HDI captures:
Click to open interactive version Click to open interactive version Standard of livingGNI per capitaThe architects of the HDI have decided to add a third dimension – a decent standard of living – and to measure it by Gross National Income per capita. For most of human history, our ancestors were stuck in a world of poor health, hunger and little access to formal education. Economic growth – particularly over the past few centuries – has allowed some part of the world population to break out of these conditions. This metric is adjusted for price changes over time, and price differences between countries – it is measured in international-$ in 2011 prices. The map shows the Gross National Income per capita – this is the metric that the HDI relies on. You find more research in our entry on Economic Growth. Click to open interactive version Human Development and GDPIn this section HIHD vs. GDP per capitaThis chart shows the Historical Index of Human Development (HIHD) plotted relative to average income (GDP per capita). There is a very strong correlation with richer countries having a higher HIHD. This is partly the case because average income is itself one of the three dimensions measured by the HDI and partly because the other two dimensions – good education and good health – are correlated with GDP per capita. Click to open interactive version HIHD with and without GDPBecause average income is itself one of the three dimensions measured by the HDI it makes sense to study the correlation without income as part of the composite index. The chart here shows the comparison of the HIHD with and without the inclusion of the GDP per capita metric. Countries which lie below or closer to the grey line (which indicates equal parity between these measures), have achieved improvements in these measures of development (health and education) with lower levels of GDP per capita relative to countries further from the line. Overall, there is a strong correlation between the HDI measured with and without GDP per capita as an additional metric. Click to open interactive version HIHD (without GDP metric) vs. GDP per capitaThe chart here shows the Historical Index of Human Development (HIHD), renormalised without the GDP metric, plotted relative to average income (GDP per capita). Click to open interactive version Data Quality & DefinitionIn this section How is the Human Development Index calculated?The Human Development Index (HDI) provides a single index measure to capture three key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. The HDI utilizes four key metrics:
There are two steps to calculating the HDI: 1. Forming indices for each of the four metrics Values of each of the four metrics are first normalized to an index value of 0 to 1. To do this, “goalposts” of the maximum and minimum limits on each metrics are set by the UNDP, as shown in the table. With the actual value for a given country, and the global maximum and minimum, the dimension (indices) value for each metric is calculated as: The dimension index is therefore 1 in a country that achieves the maximum value and it is 0 for a country that is at the minimum value. 2. Aggregating the four metrics to produce the HDI Once each of the individual indices have been calculated, they are aggregated to calculate the HDI. The HDI is calculated as the geometric mean (equally-weighted) of life expectancy, education, and GNI per capita, as follows: The education dimension is the arithmetic mean of the two education indices (mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling). How is the HIHD measured?The Historical Index of Human Development (HIHD) was created by Leandro Prados de la Escosura, and provides a measure of human development from 1870 onwards. The HIHD is based on a very similar premise to that of the HDI. It provides an indexed measure across the same three dimensions: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. The four indices used in calculation of the HIHD differ slightly from that of the HDI. They are:
To convert these metrics into indices between 0 and 1, the HIHD uses a different methodology from that of the HDI. Whereas the HDI scales these linearly using the actual values, and maximum and minimum bounds, the HIHD scales these non-linearly. The authors note: “As social variables (longevity and education) have upper and lower bounds (unlike GDP per head that has not known upper bound), they are transformed nonlinearly in order to allow for two main facts: that increases of the same absolute size represent greater achievements the higher the level at which they take place; and that quality improvements are associated to increases in quantity.” These variables are therefore scaled logarithmically: Where: I is the dimension index, x is an indicator of a country’s standard of living, M and Mo are the maximum and minimum values, respectively, or goalposts, that facilitate comparisons over time and log stands for the natural logarithm. The index for each dimension ranges between 0 and 1. Notice that this is a very different transformation than the HDI (as measured by the UNDP) which uses, I = (x – Mo) / (M – Mo). What are the indicators of human development of a country?The HDI considers three indicators of human development, namely, life expectancy, education, and per capita income.
What are the 4 indicators of human development?The Human Development Index (HDI) measures each country's social and economic development by focusing on the following four factors: mean years of schooling, expected years of schooling, life expectancy at birth, and gross national income (GNI) per capita.
Which one of the following is an indicator of human development?Life expectancy at birth is one of the indicators of Human Development Index (HDI).
What are the 3 indicators of human development?Human Development Indicators published annually by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), provide broad measures of well-being worldwide. There are three data dimensions: life expectancy, education, and purchasing power parity.
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