USA number 13 in Human Development 2009

USA has fallen behind 12 countries in human development based on 2007 data in the HDI 2009 report. This index points out to a very basic and limited extent the quality of life in a country. It is by no means a measure of how happy people are. The index is based on statistical hard data and not surveys or polls.

I don’t like that the GDP per capita is used as a measure of comparing one country to another. Countries which have rich natural resources such as oil will rate higher while average and median incomes may be lower. With the financial crisis and the falling dollar this table will look very different with 2009 data.

SUMMARY – Human Development Report 2009

This year’s HDI—which uses data for 2007—has been calculated for 182 countries. The results presented in the report take account of both new data and revisions to past series.

It is important to note that these HDI results, based on 2007 data, do not reflect the effects of the global economic crisis, which is expected to have massive impacts on human development achievements in many countries around the world.

The human development index (HDI) is a summary measure of a country’s human development. It measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions:

1. a long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth;
2. access to knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate and the combined gross enrollment ratio in education;
3. a decent standard of living, as measured by GDP per capita in purchasing power parity (PPP) US dollars.

These three dimensions are standardized to values between 0 and 1, and the simple average is taken to arrive at the overall HDI value in the range 0 to 1.

2007 HDI rank and value and 2006–2007 rank change

Notes:
Up arrow – Number of places by which HDI rank improved between 2006 and 2007.
Down arrow – Number of places by which HDI rank declined between 2006 and 2007.
Blank – No change in HDI rank between 2006 and 2007.  

 

HDI 2007