HDI: Human Development Index
Abbreviated as HDI by Abbreviationfinder, Human Development Index is a composite of various components indicator of the economic and social progress of a Country.
The HDI consists of three basic components (lifespan, level of education and income), for each of which minimum and maximum values are set. The lifespan is measured according to life expectancy, the level of education according to the weighted average literacy level of the adult population (two thirds) and the average duration of school attendance (one third). The yardstick for the standard of living is the purchasing power, based on the real gross domestic product (GDP) per head of the population, adjusted to the respective local cost of living (purchasing power parity concept, English purchasing power parity, abbreviation PPP).
Human Development Index
| Classification of selected countries according to the Human Development Index (HDI) | ||||
| Country | HDI rank | HDI value (2010) | HDI rank | HDI value (2019) |
| Norway | 1 | 0.938 | 1 | 0.957 |
| Australia | 2 | 0.937 | 8th | 0.944 |
| New Zealand | 3 | 0.907 | 14th | 0.931 |
| USA | 4th | 0.902 | 17th | 0.926 |
| Ireland | 5 | 0.895 | 2 | 0.955 |
| Canada | 8th | 0.888 | 16 | 0.929 |
| Sweden | 9 | 0.885 | 7th | 0.945 |
| Germany | 10 | 0.885 | 6th | 0.947 |
| Japan | 11 | 0.884 | 19th | 0.919 |
| France | 14th | 0.872 | 26th | 0.901 |
| Spain | 20th | 0.863 | 25th | 0.904 |
| Austria | 25th | 0.851 | 18th | 0.922 |
| Great Britain | 26th | 0.849 | 13th | 0.932 |
| Poland | 41 | 0.795 | 35 | 0.880 |
| Russia | 65 | 0.719 | 52 | 0.824 |
| China | 89 | 0.663 | 85 | 0.761 |
| Egypt | 101 | 0.620 | 116 | 0.707 |
| South Africa | 110 | 0.597 | 114 | 0.709 |
| India | 119 | 0.519 | 131 | 0.645 |
| Bangladesh | 129 | 0.469 | 133 | 0.632 |
| Sierra Leone | 158 | 0.317 | 182 | 0.452 |
| Zimbabwe | 169 | 0.140 | 150 | 0.571 |
The HDI is calculated by setting a scale from zero to one for each of the components mentioned; Zero is equated with the lowest and one with the highest value that results from the comparison of the countries. If z. If, for example, a minimum life expectancy of 25 years and a maximum value of 85 years is determined, this means that in a country with an average life expectancy of 55 years, the corresponding component has a value of 0.5. The overall index is then calculated from the values of the three components standardized in this way.
The HDI was conceived by the UN Development Program (UNDP) and has been published in its Human Development Report, which has been submitted annually since 1990. In addition to the components of the HDI, these reports contain numerous other socio-economic indicators (e.g. statements on poverty, nutrition, health, the situation of women, raw material and energy consumption, military expenditure, use of public funds, demographics, national income, trends in economic performance).
The HDI was developed in order to be able to use a more meaningful indicator of economic prosperity and social development instead of the GDP per resident, which is criticized as inadequate especially for international comparisons. In an international comparison of countries, there are in some cases considerable differences between the rankings according to real GDP per capita and according to the HDI, which shows that prosperity is used to different degrees for human development. Overall, of the 187 countries included in the calculation in 2014, 49 were in the very high human development category, 56 in the high category, 39 in the medium category and 43 in the low category.
In the Human Development Report 1995, the v. a. When examining gender equality issues, two new indices were introduced. The gender-related development index (gender-related development index, GDI) uses the same variables as the HDI but captures also the gender inequality in human development opportunities. The greater the gender disparity in basic skills, the lower a country’s GDI is compared to the HDI.
The empowerment measure gender (Gender Empowerment Measure, GEM) analyzes the participation of women in political decision-making, their employment opportunities and career prospects and reflects the extent of gender-based inequalities in participation in business, government and professional resist.