The Human Development Index (HDI) is the most widely used indicator of human development and has changed how people view the concept. However, several aspects of the index have received criticism. Some scholars have criticized how the factors are weighed, in particular how an additional year of life expectancy is valued differently between countries; and the limited factors it considers, noting the omission of factors such as the levels of distributional and gender inequality. In response to the former, the UNDP introduced the inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) in its 2010 report, and in response to the latter the Gender Development Index (GDI) was introduced in the 1995 report. Others have criticized the perceived oversimplification of using a single number per country.

To reflect developmental differences within countries, a subnational HDI (SHDI) featuring data for more than 1,600 regions was introduced in 2018 by the Global Data Lab at Radboud University in the Netherlands. In 2020, the UNDP introduced another index, the planetary pressures–adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI), which decreases the scores of countries with a higher ecological footprint.

Dimensions and indicators The HDI was first published in 1990 with the goal of being a more comprehensive measure of human development than purely economic measures such as gross domestic product. The index incorporates three dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge, and decent living standards. Various indicators are used to quantify how countries perform on each dimension. The indicators used in the 2022 report were life expectancy at birth; expected years of schooling for children; mean years of schooling for adults; and gross national income per capita. The indicators are used to create a health index, an education index and an income index, each with a value between 0 and 1. The geometric mean of the three indices—that is, the cube root of the product of the indices—is the human development index. A value above 0.800 is classified as very high, between 0.700 and 0.799 as high, 0.550 to 0.699 as medium, and below 0.550 as low.

The data used to calculate HDI comes mostly from United Nations agencies and international institutions, such as United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Rarely, when one of the indicators is missing, cross-country regression models are used. Due to improved data and methodology updates, HDI values are not comparable across human development reports; instead, each report recalculates the HDI for some previous years.

+HDI dimensions and indicators Dimensions Indicators Dimension index Long and healthy life Life expectancy at birth Life expectancy index Knowledge Expected years of schoolingMean years of schooling Education index A decent standard of living GNI per capita (PPP $) GNI index

List The Human Development Report includes data for all 193 member states of the United Nations, as well as Hong Kong and Palestine. However, the Human Development Index is not calculated for two UN member states: Monaco and North Korea, only some components of the index are calculated for these two countries. The Cook Islands, the Holy See (Vatican City), and Niue are the only three state parties within the United Nations System which are not included in the report. In total, the HDI is available for 192 countries and one territory.UNDP Human Development Report 2025

Data is for the year 2023.

+ RankChangesince2015 Country or territory HDI value %annual growth(2010–2023) 1 scope=row 0.972 2 scope=row 0.970 scope=row 4 scope=row 0.962 5 scope=row 0.959 scope=row 7 scope=row 0.958 8 scope=row 0.955 scope=row 10 scope=row 0.951 11 scope=row 0.949 12 scope=row 0.948 13 scope=row 0.946 scope=row 15 scope=row 0.940 16 scope=row 0.939 17 scope=row 0.938 scope=row scope=row 20 scope=row 0.937 21 scope=row 0.931 22 scope=row 0.930 23 scope=row 0.925 24 scope=row 0.924 25 scope=row 0.922 26 scope=row 0.920 27 scope=row 0.919 28 scope=row 0.918 29 scope=row 0.915 scope=row scope=row 32 scope=row 0.913 scope=row 34 scope=row 0.908 35 scope=row 0.906 36 scope=row 0.905 37 scope=row 0.900 38 scope=row 0.899 39 scope=row 0.895 40 scope=row 0.890 41 scope=row 0.889 scope=row 43 scope=row 0.886 44 scope=row 0.880 45 scope=row 0.878 46 scope=row 0.870 47 scope=row 0.865 48 scope=row 0.862 scope=row 50 scope=row 0.858 51 scope=row 0.853 52 scope=row 0.852 53 scope=row 0.851 54 scope=row 0.848 55 scope=row 0.845 scope=row 57 scope=row 0.844 58 scope=row 0.840 59 scope=row 0.839 60 scope=row 0.837 scope=row 62 scope=row 0.833 scope=row 64 scope=row 0.832 65 scope=row 0.824 66 scope=row 0.820 67 scope=row 0.819 68 scope=row 0.815 69 scope=row 0.811 scope=row 71 scope=row 0.810 72 scope=row 0.807 73 scope=row 0.806 74 scope=row 0.804 75 scope=row 0.799 76 scope=row 0.798 scope=row 78 scope=row 0.797 79 scope=row 0.794 80 scope=row 0.791 81 scope=row 0.789 scope=row 83 scope=row 0.788 84 scope=row 0.786 scope=row 86 scope=row 0.785 87 scope=row 0.779 88 scope=row 0.777 89 scope=row 0.776 scope=row scope=row 92 scope=row 0.769 93 scope=row 0.766 scope=row 95 scope=row 0.764 96 scope=row 0.763 97 scope=row 0.762 98 scope=row 0.761 99 scope=row 0.756 100 scope=row 0.754 scope=row 102 scope=row 0.752 103 scope=row 0.748 104 scope=row 0.747 105 scope=row 0.746 106 scope=row 0.741 107 scope=row 0.740 108 scope=row 0.733 scope=row scope=row 111 scope=row 0.731 scope=row 113 scope=row 0.728 114 scope=row 0.722 115 scope=row 0.721 scope=row 117 scope=row 0.720 scope=row scope=row 120 scope=row 0.710 121 scope=row 0.709 122 scope=row 0.708 123 scope=row 0.706 124 scope=row 0.703 125 scope=row 0.698 126 scope=row 0.695 scope=row 128 scope=row 0.691 129 scope=row 0.689 130 scope=row 0.685 scope=row 132 scope=row 0.678 133 scope=row 0.674 scope=row 135 scope=row 0.668 136 scope=row 0.665 137 scope=row 0.662 138 scope=row 0.649 139 scope=row 0.645 140 scope=row 0.644 141 scope=row 0.637 142 scope=row 0.634 143 scope=row 0.628 scope=row 145 scope=row 0.622 146 scope=row 0.621 147 scope=row 0.617 148 scope=row 0.616 149 scope=row 0.615 150 scope=row 0.609 151 scope=row 0.606 152 scope=row 0.603 153 scope=row 0.598 154 scope=row 0.595 155 scope=row 0.588 156 scope=row 0.584 157 scope=row 0.582 scope=row 159 scope=row 0.578 160 scope=row 0.576 161 scope=row 0.571 162 scope=row 0.564 163 scope=row 0.563 164 scope=row 0.560 165 scope=row 0.555 166 scope=row 0.554 167 scope=row 0.550 168 scope=row 0.544 169 scope=row 0.530 170 scope=row 0.524 171 scope=row 0.522 172 scope=row 0.517 173 scope=row 0.515 174 scope=row 0.514 175 scope=row 0.513 176 scope=row 0.511 177 scope=row 0.510 178 scope=row 0.503 179 scope=row 0.500 180 scope=row 0.497 181 scope=row 0.496 182 scope=row 0.493 183 scope=row 0.487 184 scope=row 0.470 185 scope=row 0.467 186 scope=row 0.459 187 scope=row 0.439 188 scope=row 0.419 scope=row 190 scope=row 0.416 191 scope=row 0.414 192 scope=row 0.404 193 scope=row 0.388

Regions and groups The Human Development Report also reports the HDI for various groups of countries. These include regional groupings based on the UNDP regional classifications, HDI groups including the countries currently falling into a given HDI bracket, OECD members and various other UN groupings. The aggregate HDI values are calculated in the same way as for individual countries with the input data being the weighted average for all countries with available data in the group.

+ Table of regions and groups by HDI Region or group 1990 2000 20102015 2020 2021 20222023Annualgrowth(1990-2023) OECD 0.801 0.846 0.883 0.899 0.903 0.9040.9100.916 +0.41% Very high human development 0.797 0.838 0.879 0.898 0.901 0.9030.9080.914 +0.42% Europe and Central Asia 0.674 0.686 0.753 0.789 0.802 0.8030.8150.818 +0.59% Latin America and the Caribbean 0.648 0.697 0.747 0.767 0.764 0.7620.7780.783 +0.58% High human development 0.569 0.636 0.714 0.744 0.763 0.7660.7740.777 +0.95% East Asia and the Pacific 0.514 0.604 0.699 0.735 0.764 0.7680.7730.775 +1.25% World 0.608 0.651 0.707 0.731 0.742 0.7420.7520.756 +0.66% Small Island Developing States 0.617 0.660 0.702 0.727 0.731 0.7270.7370.739 +0.55% Arab states 0.550 0.615 0.670 0.693 0.707 0.7100.7160.719 +0.82% Developing countries 0.520 0.576 0.649 0.680 0.696 0.6960.7080.712 +0.96% South Asia 0.454 0.508 0.590 0.627 0.645 0.6410.6650.672 +1.20% Medium human development 0.439 0.491 0.573 0.611 0.631 0.6290.6490.656 +1.22% Sub-Saharan Africa 0.405 0.435 0.510 0.540 0.557 0.5580.5650.568 +1.03% Least developed countries 0.360 0.411 0.494 0.526 0.550 0.5490.5550.560 +1.35% Low human development 0.346 0.393 0.467 0.491 0.507 0.507 0.5120.515 +1.21%

See also List of countries by Human Development Index by region Africa Asia and Oceania Europe Latin America List of countries by inequality-adjusted Human Development Index List of countries by planetary pressures–adjusted Human Development Index List of subnational entities with the highest and lowest Human Development Index

Notes

References

External links UN Human Development Reports