Human Development Index

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of human development that
is published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI provides
an alternative to the common practice of evaluating a country’s progress in development
based on per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The HDI is the signature trademark
of the Human Development Report (HDR), an independent report commissioned by the
UNDP that is written by a team of scholars, development practitioners and members of
the Human Development Report Office of UNDP. The HDI has had a significant impact
on drawing the attention of governments, corporations and international organizations to
aspects of development that focus on the expansion of choices and freedoms, not just
income.

The HDI measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of
human development:

• A long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth.

• Knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weight) and
the combined primary, secondary and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-
third weight).
• A decent standard of living, as measured by GDP per capita in purchasing power
parity (PPP) terms in US dollars.

Before the HDI itself is calculated, an index is created for each of these dimensions. To
calculate these indices—the life expectancy, education and GDP indices—minimum and
maximum values (goalposts) are chosen for each underlying indicator. For example, in
2004 the maximum and minimum values for life expectancy were 85 and 25 years,
respectively. Performance in each dimension is expressed as a value between 0 and 1.
The HDI is then calculated as a simple average of the dimension indices:

HDI = 1/3 (life expectancy index) + 1/3 (education index)+ 1/3 (GDP index)

Life expectancy index 0.659

Education index 0.466
GDP index 0.528

The HDI of Pakistan in the year 2004 was 0.539 in 2005 it was 0.551

Year 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2002

Human Development Index (Index) 0.346 0.373 0.405 0.444 0.473 0.497

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Human_Development_Index