The first Human Development Report (1990) introduced a new way of measuring development - by combining indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income into a composite human development index, the HDI (box 1). The breakthrough for the HDI was to find a common measuring rod for the socio-economic distance travelled.

   The HDI sets a minimum and a maximum for each dimension and then shows where each country stands in relation to these scales -expressed as a value between 0 and 1. It also permits instructive comparisons of the experiences within and between different countries.

The data referrers to 2000.

Pos.	Country	HDI
1st	Norway	0,942
2nd	Sweden	0,941
3rd	Canada	0,940
4th	Belgium	0,939
5th	Australia	0,939
6th	United States	0,939
7th	Iceland	0,936
8th	Netherlands	0,935
9th	Japan	0,933
10th	Finland	0,930
11th	Switzerland	0,928
12th	France	0,928
13th	United Kingdom	0,928
14th	Denmark	0,926
15th	Austria	0,926
16th	Luxembourg	0,925
17th	Germany	0,925
18th	Ireland	0,925
19th	New Zealand	0,917
20th	Italy	0,913
21st	Spain	0,913
22nd	Israel	0,896
23rd	Hong Kong (China)	0,888
24th	Greece	0,885
25th	Singapore	0,885
26th	Cyprus	0,883
27th	South Korea	0,882
28th	Portugal	0,880
29th	Slovenia	0,879
30th	Malta	0,875
31st	Barbados	0,871
32nd	Brunei	0,856
33rd	Czech Republic	0,849
34th	Argentina	0,844
35th	Hungary	0,835
36th	Slovakia	0,835
37th	Poland	0,833
38th	Chile	0,831
39th	Bahrain	0,831
40th	Uruguay	0,831
41st	The Bahamas	0,826
42nd	Estonia	0,826
43rd	Costa Rica	0,820
44th	Saint Kitts and Nevis	0,814
45th	Kuwait	0,813
46th	United Arab Emirates	0,812
47th	Seychelles	0,811
48th	Croatia	0,809
49th	Lithuania	0,808
50th	Trinidad and Tobago	0,805
51st	Qatar	0,803
52nd	Antigua and Barbuda	0,800
53rd	Latvia	0,800
	Average Countries with High Human Development	0,8751
54th	Mexico	0,796
55th	Cuba	0,795
56th	Belarus	0,788
57th	Panamá	0,787
58rd	Belize	0,784
59th	Malaysia	0,782
60th	Russia	0,781
61st	Dominica	0,779
62nd	Bulgaria	0,779
63rd	Romania	0,775
64th	Libya	0,773
65th	Macedonia	0,772
66th	Saint Lucia	0,772
67th	Mauritius	0,772
68th	Colombia	0,772
69th	Venezuela	0,770
70th	Thailand	0,762
71st	Saudi Arabia	0,759
72nd	Fiji	0,758
73rd	Brazil	0,757
74th	Suriname	0,756
75th	Lebanon	0,755
76th	Armenia	0,754
77th	Philippines	0,754
78th	Oman	0,751
79th	Kazakhstan	0,750
80th	Ukraine	0,748
81st	Georgia	0,748
82nd	Perù	0,747
83rd	Grenada	0,747
84th	Maldives	0,743
85th	Turkey	0,742
86th	Jamaica	0,742
87th	Turkmenistan	0,741
88th	Azerbaijan	0,741
89th	Sri Lanka	0,741
90th	Paraguay	0,740
91st	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	0,733
92nd	Albania	0,733
93rd	Ecuador	0,732
94th	Dominican Republic	0,727
95th	Uzbekistan	0,727
96th	China	0,726
97th	Tunisia	0,722
98th	Iran	0,721
99th	Jordan	0,717
100th	Cape Verde	0,715
101st	Samoa	0,715
102nd	Kyrgyzstan	0,712
103rd	Guyana	0,708
104th	El Salvador	0,706
105th	Moldova	0,701
106th	Algeria	0,697
107th	South Africa	0,695
108th	Syria	0,691
109th	Vietnam	0,688
110th	Indonesia	0,684
111th	Equatorial Guinea	0,679
112th	Tajikistan	0,667
113th	Mongolia	0,655
114th	Bolivia	0,653
115th	Egypt	0,642
116th	Honduras	0,638
117th	Gabon	0,637
118th	Nicaragua	0,635
119th	São Tomé and Principe	0,632
120th	Guatemala	0,631
121st	Solomon Islands	0,622
122nd	Namibia	0,610
123rd	Morocco	0,602
124th	India	0,577
125th	Swaziland	0,577
126th	Botswana	0,572
127th	Myanmar	0,552
128th	Zimbabwe	0,551
129th	Ghana	0,548
130th	Cambodia	0,543
131st	Vanuatu	0,542
132nd	Lesotho	0,535
133rd	Papua New Guinea	0,535
134th	Kenya	0,513
135th	Cameroon	0,512
136th	Republic of the Congo	0,512
137th	Comoros	0,511
	Average Countries with Medium Human Development	0,6946
138th	Pakistan	0,499
139th	Sudan	0,499
140th	Bhutan	0,494
141st	Togo	0,493
142nd	Nepal	0,490
143rd	Laos	0,485
144th	Yemen	0,479
145th	Bangladesh	0,478
146th	Haiti	0,471
147th	Madagascar	0,469
148th	Nigeria	0,462
149th	Djibouti	0,445
150th	Uganda	0,444
151st	Tanzania	0,440
152nd	Mauritania	0,438
153rd	Zambia	0,433
154th	Senegal	0,431
155th	Democratic Republic of the Congo (ex-Zaire)	0,431
156th	Cote d'Ivoire	0,428
157th	Eritrea	0,421
158th	Benin	0,420
159th	Guinea	0,414
160th	The Gambia	0,405
161st	Angola	0,403
162nd	Rwanda	0,403
163rd	Malawi	0,400
164th	Mali	0,386
165th	Central African Republic	0,375
166th	Chad	0,365
167th	Guinea-Bissau	0,349
168th	Ethiopia	0,327
169th	Burkina Faso	0,325
170th	Mozambique	0,322
171st	Burundi	0,313
172nd	Niger	0,277
173rd	Sierra Leone	0,275
	Average Countries with Low Human Development	0,4164
	Developing Countries	0,654
	Least developed countries	0,445
	Developed Countries	0,918
	World	0,722

Source: UNDP, Human Development Report 2002.

Edited by Maristella Bergaglio