What is human development Index?

What Does human development Index Mean

Originating from the Latin index , the word index describes an indication, a reference or a signal that accounts for a certain thing . The term can be used to identify the numerical structure that reveals the relationship between various classes of indicators or between a pair of quantities.

Development , on the other hand, is the fact and result of progressing or developing (increasing, increasing or increasing something of an intellectual, physical or moral order). Human , finally, is that which is associated or related to the man .

With these notions clear, we can proceed to analyze the concept of the human development index (generally expressed with the acronym HDI ). It is a statistical indicator that collects information on the prevailing standard of living in each nation .
The HDI is under the responsibility of the United Nations Development Program (whose acronym is UNDP ), a body that conceives human development as the driving force behind the potential progress of individuals .
Countries with the highest and lowest Human Development Index
This index began to be used from the year 1990 through a project launched by the UN, until that moment the development of the countries was measured with their economic growth, but given certain investigations it was discovered that this number did not respond to human development as well , but purely commercial, therefore the Human Development Index (HDI) was created.
Said project was announced under the argument that people are the true wealth of a nation and that it was necessary to take them into account more than economic gains. Thanks to it, a list can be established to classify each country taking into account not only economic income , but also indicators that respond to health and education issues, mainly.
This index includes the average income of each individual and their health and education, taking into account other indicators such as life expectancy and the average schooling of adults and school-age children .
At the moment these are the variables that are taken into account when measuring the development index, however UNDP is looking for other ways of knowing human development, such as the level of democracy , sustainability , freedom of expression and inequality and it is expected that in the not too distant future these may also be included, although their implementation is much more difficult because it is more complex to calculate.

According to the various statistics made from the numerous censuses that are carried out each year in each country, a knowledge of life expectancy at the time of birth can be reached; the level of literacy in adults; student attendance at the primary, secondary, and higher levels; the years of compulsory instruction; and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person. These statistics allow obtaining a figure that reflects the human development of each territory.
The most unequal continent in Human Development is Latin America, having countries that occupy the last steps of the list and others that are in the middle. The best country on this continent in terms of HDI is Chile , which ranks 45th worldwide.
In other data collected from the last census, carried out in 2010, it can be seen that Norway is the country with the best HDI : 0.938 points. They are followed by Australia , New Zealand , the United States and Ireland , in that order. At the other extreme, the nation with the worst HDI is Zimbabwe (0.140), scoring slightly higher than the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Niger , Burundi and Mozambique .

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