Countries of the World: Human Development Index

Compiled by David Pakman

          The United Nations Development Programme provides Human Development Reports. These reports ranks countries with a Human Development Index, going beyond income to assess the level of people’s long-term well-being in that particular country. Here are the top 35 countries as ranked in the 2002 Human Development Index (the most recent report at this time):

     A few interesting notes about the data, and countries. The 15 countries that have increased their HDI the most in the past 30 years:

• Korea

• Singapore

• Malta

• Hong Kong, China

• Ireland

• Israel

• Portugal

• Australia

• Belgium

• Finland

• Luxembourg

• Austria

• United Kingdom

• Barbados

• Norway

     Since pollution is factored into the HDI, these are the 5 countries with the most CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere per capita, of the top 35 ranked by HDI:

• United States

• Luxembourg

• Australia

• Singapore

• Canada

     Here are the 5 countries with the least CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere per capita, of the top 35 ranked by HDI:

• Seychelles

• Argentina

• Barbados

• Hong Kong,China

• Sweden & Switzerland (almost exactly tied for 5)

     Another interesting statistic compiled in the Human Development Reports is that of male-to-female wage equality. Here are the 10 countries where women's wages are most equal to men's (Note: We are now considering all countries, not just the top 35 ranked by HDI):

• Kenya

• Sweden

• Cambodia

• Ghana

• Norway

• Denmark

• Australia

• Tanzania

• Burundi

• Burkina Faso

     Conversely, here are the 10 countries where women's wages are least equal to men's:

• Saudi Arabia

• Oman

• Belize

• Pery

• Syrian Arab Republic

• Iran

• Ecuador

• Yemen

• Algeria

• Lebanon

     Lastly, let's look at income inequality between the rich and the poor. Here are the 10 countries with the largest discrepancy (most inequality) between the rich and the poor (again, of all countries, not just the top 35 by HDI):

• Namibia

• Lesotho

• Botswana

• Sierra Leone

• Central African Republic

• Swaziland

• South Africa

• Brazil

• Colombia

• Chile

     The 10 countries with the most equal distribution of income between rich and poor:

• Hungary

• Denmark

• Japan

• Belgium

• Sweden

• Czech Republic

• Norway

• Slovakia

• Bosnia & Herzegovina

• Uzbekistan

     If there are any particular country statistics which would be interesting to look at, drop me a line here.