Human Development Index (HDI)
- The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development:
- a long and healthy life,
- being knowledgeable
- have a decent standard of living.
- The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions.
- The health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth, the education dimension is measured by mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age.
- The standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita.
- The HDI uses the logarithm of income, to reflect the diminishing importance of income with increasing GNI.
- It was developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and was further used to measure a country’s development by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Human Development Report Office.
- 2019 report first time, UNDP introduced a new metric to reflect the impact caused by each country per-capita carbon emission and its material footprint, which measures the number of fossil fuels, metal and other resource used to make the goods and service it consumes.
- The HDI simplifies and captures only part of what human development entails. It does not reflect on inequalities, poverty, human security, empowerment, etc. The HDRO offers the other composite indices as a broader proxy on some of the key issues of human development, inequality, gender disparity and poverty.
