Human Poverty Index

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The Human Poverty Index (HPI) was an indication of the poverty of community in a country, developed by the United Nations to complement the Human Development Index (HDI) and was first reported as part of the Human Development Report in 1997. It is developed by United Nations Development Program which also publishes indexes like HDI It was considered to better reflect the extent of deprivation in deprived countries compared to the HDI. [1] In 2010, it was supplanted by the UN's Multidimensional Poverty Index.

Contents

The HPI concentrates on the deprivation in the three essential elements of human life already reflected in the HDI: longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living. The HPI is derived separately for developing countries (HPI-1) and a group of select high-income OECD countries (HPI-2) to better reflect socio-economic differences and also the widely different measures of deprivation in the two groups.

For developing countries (HPI-1)

The Human Development Reports website summarizes this as "A composite index measuring deprivations in the three basic dimensions captured in the human development index—a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living." The formula for calculating it is:

: Probability at birth of not surviving to age 40 (times 100)

: Adult illiteracy rate
: Arithmetic average of 3 characteristics:

: 3

For selected high-income OECD countries (HPI-2)

The Human Development Reports website summarizes this as "A composite index measuring deprivations in the four basic dimensions captured in the human development index—a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living—and also capturing social exclusion." The formula for calculating it is:

: Probability at birth of not surviving to age 60 (times 100)

: Adults lacking functional literacy skills
: Population below income poverty line (50% of median adjusted household disposable income)
: Rate of long-term unemployment (lasting 12 months or more)

: 3

The last report, 2007–2008, only has a ranking for 19 of the 22 countries with the highest Human Development Index. The ranking is as follows (with the country with the lowest amount of poverty at the top):

RankingCountryHPI-2Probability at birth of not surviving to age 60 (%)People lacking functional literacy skills (%)Long-term unemployment (%)Population below 50% of median income (%)
1Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden 6.36.77.51.16.5
2Flag of Norway.svg  Norway 6.87.97.90.56.4
3Flag of the Netherlands.svg  Netherlands 8.18.310.51.87.3
4Flag of Finland.svg  Finland 8.19.410.41.85.4
5Flag of Denmark.svg  Denmark 8.210.39.60.85.6
6Flag of Germany.svg  Germany 10.38.614.45.88.4
7Flag of Switzerland (Pantone).svg   Switzerland 10.77.215.91.57.6
8Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada 10.98.114.60.511.4
9Flag of Luxembourg.svg  Luxembourg 11.19.21.26.0
10Flag of Austria.svg  Austria 11.18.81.37.7
11Flag of France.svg  France 11.28.94.17.3
12Flag of Japan.svg  Japan 11.76.91.311.8
13Flag of Australia (converted).svg  Australia 12.17.317.00.912.2
14Flag of Belgium (civil).svg  Belgium 12.49.318.44.68.0
15Flag of Spain.svg  Spain 12.57.72.214.2
16Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom 14.88.721.81.212.5
17Flag of the United States.svg  United States 15.411.620.00.417.0
18Flag of Ireland.svg  Ireland 16.08.722.61.516.2
19Flag of Italy.svg  Italy 29.87.747.03.412.7

The countries ranked in the top 22 by HPI that are not on this list are Iceland, New Zealand and Liechtenstein.

Not all countries are included in this ranking because data are not always available. The ranks of many countries, especially those at the bottom, could drop considerably if the list included more countries. For information about the component values for countries other than the ones on the list, see source links below.

Indicators used are:

See also

Indices
Other

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References

  1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-01-25. Retrieved 2007-02-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)