What is HDI? The Human Development Index (HDI)

is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development"

The statistic is composed from data on Life Expectancy, Education and per-capita GDP (as an indicator of Standard of living)

Origins of human development index

1. The origins of the HDI are to be found in the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Reports (HDRs).

2. the purpose is to shift the focus of development economics from national income accounting to people centered policies .

3. The HDI has been used since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme for its annual Human Development Reports.

The HDI combines three dimensions Life expectancy at birth, as an index of

population health and longevity Knowledge and education, as measured by the

adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting).

Standard of living, as indicated by the natural logarithm* of gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity.

Strengths and limitations for the HDI

It can be used as an powerful advocacy tool to catch the attention of policy makers ,media e.c.t

It helps countries set targets for improvement

Compress social ,economical general well being into one figure that can be compared

as HDI is only a summary it’sinformation shown is much more limited than what it sets out to measure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index

credits