Human Development Index facts for kids

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The Human Development Index (HDI) is a number from 0 to 1 (higher is better) used to compare different countries. It is published by United Nations Development Programme. It is used to rank countries into different groups for example developed and developing countries.

The Human Development Index uses different measurements of a population:

• Life expectancy at birth. This is used to see how healthy the people in one country are. It assumes that healthier people live longer on average.
• Literacy is used to look at how educated people are, for example how many adults can read and write. One third of this is the gross enrollment ratio, which measures how many of children of schooling age attend school.
• Standard of living. This is measured by calculating the gross domestic product with the total population so that it becomes comparable.

2011 data

The 2011 Human Development Report was released on 2 November 2011. Below is the list of the "Very High Human Development" countries:

Note: The green arrows (), red arrows (), and blue dashes () mean changes in rank when compared to the new 2011 data HDI for 2010 – published in the 2011 report (p. 131).

Related pages

• Constitutional economics
• Political economy

See also

In Spanish: Índice de desarrollo humano para niños