List of countries in Asia and Oceania by Human Development Index

HDI ranking

UNHDI Source	"Human Development Report 2023". United Nations Development Programme . Retrieved 2025-07-14.
HDI scale ranges	Very high · High · Medium · Low
Number of countries	48
Cut-off for very high HDI	≥ 0.800

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. Countries fall into four broad categories based on their HDI: (very high, high, medium, and low human development). Currently, no Oceanian country falls into the low human development category while Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen are the only Asian countries which fall into this category, although recovering rapidly.

The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq ^{[1] [2]}

The table below presents the latest Human Development Index (HDI) ^[3] for countries in Asia and the Pacific as included in a Development report of united nations development programme released on 6 May 2025 and based on data collected in 2023. ^[4]

Countries with contiguous boundaries that are partially (but not entirely) located in Asia are shown here in italics, but HDI figures are given for the whole country. Macau, North Korea, and Taiwan in Asia, are not ranked as they are not included in the latest report by the United Nations Development Programme. As of 2025 ,Taiwan ranked very Highly in HDI with 0.926 per official figures.

List of countries in Asia and Oceania by Human Development Index
Rank		Nation	Human Development Index (HDI)
Region	World		HDI 2023	HDI 2022	HDI 2021	Change in HDI Value (2021-2023)
Very High Human Development
1	7	Australia	0.958	0.946	0.949	0.009
2	8	Hong Kong, China (SAR) [note 1]	0.955	0.956	0.959	0.004
3	13	Singapore	0.946	0.949	0.942	0.004
4	15	United Arab Emirates	0.940	0.937	0.931	0.009
5	17	New Zealand	0.938	0.939	0.936	0.002
6	20	South Korea	0.937	0.929	0.926	0.011
7	23	Japan	0.925	0.920	0.920	0.005
8	27	Israel	0.919	0.915	0.911	0.004
9	32	Cyprus [note 2]	0.913	0.907	0.901	0.012
10	37	Saudi Arabia	0.900	0.875	0.867	0.033
11	38	Bahrain	0.899	0.888	0.884	0.015
12	43	Qatar	0.886	0.875	0.864	0.022
13	50	Oman	0.858	0.819	0.810	0.048
14	51	Turkey [note 3]	0.853	0.855	0.841	0.012
15	52	Kuwait	0.852	0.849	0.838	0.014
16	57	Georgia [note 4]	0.844	0.814	0.809	0.035
17	60	Brunei	0.837	0.823	0.824	0.013
18	60	Kazakhstan [note 5]	0.837	0.802	0.801	0.036
19	64	Russia [note 6]	0.832	0.821	0.818	0.014
20	67	Malaysia	0.819	0.807	0.798	0.021
21	69	Armenia [note 7]	0.811	0.786	0.774	0.037
High Human Development
22	75	Iran	0.799	0.780	0.776	0.023
23	76	Thailand	0.798	0.803	0.797	0.001
24	78	China [note 8]	0.797	0.788	0.785	0.012
25	81	Azerbaijan [note 9]	0.789	0.760	0.738	0.051
26	84	Palau	0.786	0.797	0.802	0.015
27	89	Sri Lanka	0.776	0.780	0.783	0.007
28	92	Tonga	0.769	0.739	0.738	0.031
29	93	Maldives	0.766	0.762	0.753	0.013
30	93	Vietnam	0.766	0.726	0.718	0.048
31	95	Turkmenistan	0.764	0.744	0.740	0.024
32	100	Jordan	0.754	0.736	0.736	0.018
33	100	Egypt [note 10]	0.754	0.728	0.726	0.028
34	102	Lebanon	0.752	0.723	0.725	0.027
35	104	Mongolia	0.747	0.741	0.730	0.017
36	107	Uzbekistan	0.740	0.727	0.721	0.006
37	108	Marshall Islands	0.733	0.731	0.729	0.004
38	111	Fiji	0.731	0.729	0.715	0.016
39	113	Indonesia [note 11]	0.728	0.713	0.707	0.021
40	117	Philippines	0.720	0.710	0.692	0.028
41	117	Kyrgyzstan	0.720	0.701	0.696	0.024
42	122	Samoa	0.708	0.702	0.708	0.000
43	122	Nauru	0.703	0.696	0.693	0.010
Medium Human Development
44	125	Bhutan	0.698	0.681	0.677	0.021
45	126	Iraq	0.695	0.673	0.667	0.028
46	128	Tajikistan	0.691	0.679	0.677	0.014
47	129	Tuvalu	0.689	0.653	0.653	0.036
48	130	Bangladesh	0.685	0.670	0.662	0.023
49	131	India	0.685	0.644	0.633	0.052
50	133	Palestine	0.674	0.716	0.715	0.041
51	140	Kiribati	0.644	0.628	0.627	0.017
52	142	Timor Leste	0.634	0.566	0.574	0.060
53	145	Nepal	0.622	0.601	0.591	0.031
54	146	Vanuatu	0.621	0.614	0.614	0.007
55	147	Laos	0.617	0.620	0.615	0.002
56	149	Micronesia	0.615	0.634	0.634	0.019
57	150	Myanmar	0.609	0.608	0.599	0.010
58	151	Cambodia	0.606	0.600	0.596	0.010
59	156	Solomon Islands	0.584	0.562	0.564	0.020
60	160	Papua New Guinea	0.576	0.568	0.564	0.012
61	162	Syria	0.564	0.557	0.558	0.006
Low Human Development
62	168	Pakistan	0.544	0.540	0.537	0.007
63	181	Afghanistan	0.496	0.462	0.473	0.023
64	184	Yemen	0.470	0.424	0.425	0.045

See also

• Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
• List of Asian and Pacific countries by GDP (PPP)
• List of Asian countries by GDP
• List of Asian countries by population
• List of countries by Human Development Index
• List of countries by Human Development Index by region
• List of countries by industrial production growth rate
• List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty

Notes

1. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China.
2. Cyprus is geographically a part of Western Asia (or the Middle East), though politically and culturally it is often considered as being a part of Europe.
3. A portion of Turkey, known as East Thrace, is a part of Europe, making up about 3% of the country's land area and 14% of its population.
4. The municipality of Kazbegi is located in Europe, which makes up about 0.1% of Georgia's population.
5. Two regions of Kazakhstan, namely Atyrau and West Kazakhstan, are partly located in Europe.
6. Russia is geographically a transcontinental country, though culturally and politically it is often considered as being a part of Europe. Asian Russia consists of over 75% of the country's territory, but only 22% of its population.
7. Armenia is geographically a part of Western Asia (or the Middle East), though culturally and politically it is often considered as being a part of Europe.
8. Data for China are calculated for mainland China only, excluding Taiwan and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao.
9. The districts of Khachmaz, Quba, Qusar, Shabran, and Siazan are geographically in Europe, placing about 5% of Azerbaijan's population in Europe.
10. The portion of Egypt located in Asia is the Sinai Region, comprising about 6% of the country's landmass. However, the country is politically a part of Africa.
11. The Aru Islands and Western New Guinea are geographically in Oceania, comprising approx. 22% of Indonesia's landmass and 2% of its population. However, the country is politically a part of Asia.

References

1. "History of the Human Development Report". United Nations Development Programme. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
2. "The Human Development concept". UNDP. 2010. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
3. "Table 1: Human Development Index and its components".
4. "Human Development Report 2023". Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 22 May 2024.