The Human Development Index is a multi-component aggregate indicator that is regularly compiled by United Nations staff to allow country comparisons to be made.
Index purpose
The concept of the Human Development Index (HDI) was developed in 1990 by a team of United Nations experts working on cross-country comparisons. In the process of working on this topic, it became clear to them that different countries differ too much among themselves to be able to do with one criterion to ensure their comparison.
As a result, the research team led by Mahbub-ul-Haq came up with a composite indicator based on several criteria. At the same time, in the process of use, the concept of the index has undergone quite serious changes: for example, in 2010 the range of criteria taken into account in its determination was significantly expanded, and in 2013 the index, which was previously called the Human Development Index, was renamed to the Index human development.
Currently, UN experts calculate this index annually for 169 countries. In the process of making calculations, they are all divided into 4 groups: states with a very high HDI, with a high HDI, with an average HDI and with a low HDI. Moreover, each group of countries consists of 42 countries (the group with a high HDI includes 43 countries), so the size of the group remains the same every year, but its composition is constantly changing.
Index composition
To calculate the human development index, the UN uses three main groups of indicators, each of which, in turn, is integral, from that is calculated on the basis of several parameters included in it. So, the first group of indicators is an assessment of life expectancy in the region under consideration, which, in particular, depends on the environmental situation, the level of development of medicine and other factors.
The second group of indicators is designed to assess the level of literacy of the population of the analyzed state. It, in turn, is based on the prevalence and accessibility of educational institutions, the quality of education in the country, the development of educational infrastructure, such as libraries and training courses, and other characteristics of the country.
Finally, the third group of indicators used to calculate the human development index is based on an assessment of the standard of living of the population in a particular state. The standard of living, according to UN experts, depends on the level of income, labor productivity, the level of prices in the state, inflation and similar parameters.
