List of countries by Human Development Index

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranks countries into four tiers of human development by combining measurements of life expectancy, education, and per-capita income into the Human Development Index (HDI) in its annual Human Development Report.

World map representing Human Development Index categories (based on 2018 data, published in 2019).

0.800–1.000 (very high)   0.700–0.799 (high)   0.555–0.699 (medium)

0.350–0.554 (low)   Data unavailable

World map of countries by Human Development Index categories in increments of 0.050 (based on 2018 data, published in 2019)

  ≥ 0.900

  0.850–0.899

  0.800–0.849

  0.750–0.799

  0.700–0.749

  0.650–0.699

  0.600–0.649

  0.550–0.599

  0.500–0.549

  0.450–0.499

  0.400–0.449

  ≤ 0.399

  Data unavailable

The HDI is a summary index using life expectancy at birth, expected years of schooling for children and mean years of schooling for adults, and GNI per capita. The final HDI is a value between 0 and 1 with countries grouped into four categories depending on the value, very high for HDI of 0.800 and above, high from 0.700 to 0.799, medium from 0.550 to 0.699 and low below 0.550.[1][2]

The Human Development Report has been published most years since 1990. The 2019 report contained the HDI of 189 countries and territories and 15 regions or groups of countries based on data collected in 2018.[3]

In the 2010 Human Development Report, a further Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) was introduced assessing countries on a fourth dimension of inequality. The report stated that while the HDI remains useful, "the IHDI is the actual level of human development (accounting for inequality)" and "the HDI can be viewed as an index of 'potential' human development (or the maximum IHDI that could be achieved if there were no inequality)".[4]