Development: more than income
A rich country is not necessarily a country where everyone lives well. Here development is measured the way the UNDP, the United Nations Development Programme, does it: with people’s health, education and income, and with how unequally they are shared.
What development is
For the UNDP, human development is the expansion of people’s choices: being able to live a long and healthy life, to learn, to have a decent standard of living. Since 1990 the Human Development Report has measured it with the Human Development Index (HDI), a number from 0 to 1.
Why GDP is not enough
GDP per capita tells how much is produced on average per person, not how people live: it says nothing about how long people live, how much they study or how income is shared. Two countries with similar incomes can have very different life expectancy and schooling. That is why the HDI puts income next to health and education.
Averages and inequality
The HDI is an average too: the same value can hide a country where almost everyone is well off and one where a few are very well off and many are not. That is why there are the inequality-adjusted HDI, the Gini index, the share of people in extreme poverty and two indices of inequality between women and men.
The indicators
| Indicator | What it measures | See |
|---|---|---|
| Human Development Index (HDI) | The UNDP’s HDI sums up three dimensions in a number from 0 to 1: a long and healthy life (life expectancy), education (expected and mean years of schooling) and standard of living (gross national income per capita at purchasing power parity). Groups: low below 0.550, medium up to 0.699, high up to 0.799, very high from 0.800. | Ranking Map |
| Expected years of schooling | How many years of schooling a child starting school today can expect, if enrolment rates at each age stay the same (UNDP). | Ranking Map |
| Mean years of schooling (adults) | How many years of schooling people aged 25 and over have completed on average (UNDP). | Ranking Map |
| Inequality-adjusted HDI | The HDI taking into account how health, education and income are distributed among the population: with perfect equality it would equal the HDI (UNDP). | Ranking Map |
| HDI loss due to inequality (%) | How much of the HDI is lost to inequality: 100 × (1 − inequality-adjusted HDI / HDI) (UNDP). | Ranking Map |
| Gini index | How unequally income (or consumption) is shared among the people of a country: 0 if everyone has the same, 100 if one person has everything. Surveys are not carried out every year: for each country, the latest published figure (World Bank). | Ranking Map |
| Extreme poverty (% below $3 a day) | The share of the population living on less than $3 a day at 2021 purchasing power parity: the World Bank’s extreme poverty line since June 2025. Surveys are not carried out every year. | Ranking Map |
| Gender Development Index | The ratio between the HDI of women and that of men: 1 means parity, below 1 women are worse off, above 1 better off (UNDP). | Ranking Map |
| Gender Inequality Index | Women’s disadvantage in reproductive health, empowerment (parliament, education) and the labour market: from 0 (women and men equal) to 1. The higher, the more inequality (UNDP). | Ranking Map |
Sources: UNDP, Human Development Report (CC BY 3.0 IGO), always the latest edition; World Bank, World Development Indicators (CC BY 4.0), for the Gini index and extreme poverty.