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Human Development Index  (HDI)

 

I have been showing the Gross Domestic Product per person (GDP) here because it can generally provide some indication of the level of development to be expected in each country. The GDP per person indicator can however be misleading. For example, the 5 highest GDP per person numbers were as follows in 1996: Luxembourg 34 155$, Brunei 30.447$, USA 26 396$, Switzerland 24 967$, and Hong Kong 22 310$. Brunei is second because of its high petroleum production but it is nevertheless an underdeveloped country, all the money goes to the Sultan and most of the people have stayed poor.

The obvious need for a more significant indicator has been filled since 1990 by the Human Development Index created by the UNDP (United Nation's Development Program). This sophisticated composite index takes into account the GDP/person but also other factors that contribute to what we call development, the life expectancy at birth, the level of school attendance and the percentage of people who can read and write. It makes sense, Brunei's rank of 38th on the HDI scale is certainly more representative of average the quality of life in that country than its second position on the GDP/p scale.

Finally, what is really meaningful to most people is not so much the actual numbers but the ranks occupied by the various countries on these two scales. I have therefore decided to present the GDP rank followed by the dollar number for each country and to add its rank on the Human Development Index followed by its score on a scale from 0 to 1000.

The table below shows how the countries judged by the UN to be the ten most developed are not those who have the highest GNP per person.

COUNTRY HDI
rank
HDI
index
GDP/p
rank
GDP/p
US$
Canada 1 960 8 21 459
France 2 946 15 20 510.
Norway 3 943 9 21 346
U. S. A. 4 942 3 26 397
Iceland 5 942 14 20 566
Netherlands 6 940 19 19 238
Japan 7 940 7 21 581
Finland 8 940 23 17 417
New Zealand 9 937 24 16 851
Sweden 10 936 21 18 540
Greece 20 932 35 11 625
Chili 30 891 43 9 129
Trinidad & T. 40 880 44 9 124
Mexico 50 853 50 7 384
Malaysia 60 832 47 8 865
Iran 70 780 61 5766
Macedonia 80 748 86 3 965
South Africa 90 716 80 4 291
Uzbekistan 100 662 114 2 438
Moldavia 110 612 138 1 576
Gabon 120 562 95 3 641
Congo (Brazza) 130 500 116 2 410
Comores 140 412 141 1 366
Mauritania 150 355 135 1 593
Senegal 160 326 134 1 596
Ethiopia 170 244 174 427
Mali 171 229 172 543
Burkina Faso 172 221 163 796
Niger 173 206 165 787
Rwanda 174 187 175 352
Sierra Leone 175 176 171 643

 

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