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Human Development Index

UNDP
See all data and research on:
Human Development Index (HDI)Life ExpectancyGlobal EducationEconomic Growth

What you should know about this indicator

  • The Human Development Index (HDI) provides a broad, intuitive measure for comparing overall human progress across countries and over time. A higher HDI implies longer, healthier lives, better education and higher command over resources; however, it does not capture inequality, sustainability or subjective wellbeing
  • It is a composite summary of a country's average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development – health (life expectancy), knowledge (schooling) and material wellbeing (GNI per capita) – combined through a geometric mean into a single 0‑to‑1 score.
  • Each dimension of the HDI is captured by a specific index:
    • Healthy life: Captured by the Life Expectancy Index, which is based on life expectancy at birth.
    • Good education (knowledge): Captured by Education Index, which is based on the expected and mean years of schooling.
    • Decent standard of living: Captured by Gross National Income (GNI) Index, which is based on the GNI per capita (PPP$).
  • The index is estimated by normalizing and aggregating the above indicators. First, the indicators are brought onto the same scale, ranging from 0 to 1. This is done by setting minimum and maximum values for each indicator. The minimum and maximum values for each indicator are defined as follows:
    • Life expectancy at birth ranges between 20 and 85 years
    • Expected years of schooling between 0 and 18 years; Mean years of schooling, between 0 and 15 years
    • GNI per capita between 100 and 75,000 international-$ at 2021 prices.
  • The HDI is then estimated as the geometric mean of these indices. The education index is the arithmetic mean (average) of the mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and having a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions.

The health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth, the education dimension is measured by mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age. The standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita. The HDI uses the logarithm of income, to reflect the diminishing importance of income with increasing GNI. The scores for the three HDI dimension indices are then aggregated into a composite index using geometric mean. Refer to Technical notes for more details.

The HDI can be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with different human development outcomes. These contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities.

The HDI simplifies and captures only part of what human development entails. It does not reflect on inequalities, poverty, human security, empowerment, etc. The HDRO provides other composite indices as broader proxy on some of the key issues of human development, inequality, gender disparity and poverty.

A fuller picture of a country's level of human development requires analysis of other indicators and information presented in the HDR statistical annex.

Human Development Index
UNDP
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, a good education, and a decent standard of living. Higher values indicate higher human development.
Source
UNDP, Human Development Report (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
May 7, 2025
Next expected update
May 2026
Date range
1990–2023

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The Human Development Index and related indices: what they are and what we can learn from them

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Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Artificial intelligence (AI) has broken into a dizzying gallop. While AI feats grab headlines, they privilege technology in a make-believe vacuum, obscuring what really matters: people's choices.

The choices that people have and can realize, within ever expanding freedoms, are essential to human development, whose goal is for people to live lives they value and have reason to value. A world with AI is flush with choices the exercise of which is both a matter of human development and a means to advance it.

Going forward, development depends less on what AI can do—not on how human-like it is perceived to be—and more on mobilizing people's imaginations to reshape economies and societies to make the most of it. Instead of trying vainly to predict what will happen, the 2025's Human Development Report asks what choices can be made so that new development pathways for all countries dot the horizon, helping everyone have a shot at thriving in a world with AI.

For more details, refer to https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/documentation-and-downloads

Retrieved on
May 7, 2025
Retrieved from
https://hdr.undp.org/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). 2025. Human Development Report 2025: A matter of choice: People and possibilities in the age of AI. New York.

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Citations

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To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Human Development Index”, part of the following publication: Bastian Herre and Pablo Arriagada (2023) - “The Human Development Index and related indices: what they are and what we can learn from them”. Data adapted from UNDP, Human Development Report. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/human-development-index [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

UNDP, Human Development Report (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

UNDP, Human Development Report (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Human Development Index – UNDP” [dataset]. UNDP, Human Development Report, “Human Development Report” [original data]. Retrieved June 15, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/human-development-index