Maldives continues to rise on the Human Development Index ranks despite global decline
12 Sep 2022
‘The world is lurching from crisis to crisis, trapped in a cycle of firefighting and unable to tackle the roots of the troubles that confront us.’ UNDP, 2022. In the press release launching the Human Development Report 2021/2022, (HDR) UNDP sums up the particularly devastating global events of the past two years as a series of crises with no solution in sight.
Owing to the crises suffered by people worldwide with the global pandemic, consequences of the war in Ukraine and extreme weather events as a result of accelerating climate change, UNDP reports that for the first time since its inception 32 years ago, the Human Development Index has declined for over 90 countries in the last two years.
HDI value is based on 3 indicators that measure life expectancy/health, mean years of schooling/knowledge and the gross national income/standard of living. Countries with values over 0.800 are very high development countries while countries with values 0.700-0.799 are high development countries. Countries with values between 0.550-0.699 are medium development countries and values under 0.550 indicate low development countries.
Despite the odds and unprecedented challenges of the past two years, Maldives continues to rise steadily on the Human Development Index (HDI). The latest HDI ranks Maldives at 90th out of 191 countries with a HDI value of 0.747. This puts Maldives amongst the high development countries in the index.
According to the HDR 2021/2022 Maldives’ life expectancy at birth is now 79.9 years, the expected years of schooling is 12.6 years and the mean years of schooling is 7.3 years. The Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is 15,448 US dollars.
In 1955, Maldives had a life expectancy of 67.5 years, mean years of schooling of 3.5 years and a GNI per capita of 9,966$.
Maldives was ranked as a high development country for the first time in 2011 with a value of 0.700 and has steadily climbed up the ranks through the recent years. Maldives started off in as a medium development country with a value of 0.582 in 1995. The only other South Asian country in the high development range is Sri Lanka ranked at 73 with a HDI value of 0.782.
In the HDI 2021/2022, India ranked at 131, Nepal at 141, Pakistan at 161 and Afghanistan at 180.