List of countries in Asia and Oceania by Human Development Index

Last updated December 25, 2024

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.

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.

List of countries in Asia and Oceania by Human Development Index
Rank		Nation	Human Development Index (HDI)
Region	World	Nation	HDI 2022	HDI 2021	Change in HDI Value (2021-2022)
Very High Human Development
1	4	Hong Kong	0.956	0.959	0.003
2	9	Singapore	0.949	0.942	0.007
3	12	Australia	0.946	0.949	0.003
4	16	New Zealand	0.939	0.936	0.003
5	19	United Arab Emirates	0.937	0.931	0.006
5	19	South Korea	0.929	0.926	0.003
6	24	Japan	0.920	0.920
7	25	Israel	0.915	0.911	0.004
8	29	Cyprus ^{[note 1]}	0.907	0.901	0.006
9	34	Bahrain	0.888	0.884	0.004
10	40	Qatar	0.875	0.864	0.011
10	40	Saudi Arabia	0.875	0.867	0.008
11	45	Turkey ^{[note 2]}	0.855	0.841	0.014
12	49	Kuwait	0.849	0.838	0.011
13	55	Brunei	0.823	0.824	0.001
14	56	Russia ^{[note 3]}	0.821	0.818	0.003
15	59	Oman	0.819	0.810	0.009
16	60	Georgia ^{[note 4]}	0.814	0.809	0.005
17	63	Malaysia	0.807	0.798	0.009
18	66	Thailand	0.803	0.797	0.006
19	67	Kazakhstan ^{[note 5]}	0.802	0.801	0.001
High Human Development
20	71	Palau	0.797	0.802	0.005
21	75	China ^{[note 6]}	0.788	0.785	0.003
22	76	Armenia ^{[note 7]}	0.786	0.774	0.012
23	80	Iran	0.780	0.776	0.004
23	80	Sri Lanka	0.780	0.783	0.003
25	87	Maldives	0.762	0.753	0.009
26	89	Azerbaijan ^{[note 8]}	0.760	0.738	0.022
27	94	Turkmenistan	0.744	0.740	0.004
28	96	Mongolia	0.741	0.730	0.011
29	98	Tonga	0.739	0.738	0.001
30	99	Jordan	0.736	0.736
31	102	Marshall Islands	0.731	0.729	0.002
32	104	Fiji	0.729	0.715	0.014
33	105	Egypt ^{[note 9]}	0.728	0.726	0.002
34	106	Uzbekistan	0.727	0.721	0.006
35	107	Vietnam	0.726	0.718	0.008
36	109	Lebanon	0.723	0.725	0.002
37	111	Palestine	0.716	0.715	0.001
38	112	Indonesia ^{[note 10]}	0.713	0.707	0.006
39	113	Philippines	0.710	0.692	0.018
40	116	Samoa	0.702	0.708	0.006
41	117	Kyrgyzstan	0.701	0.696	0.005
Medium Human Development
42	122	Nauru	0.696	0.693	0.003
43	125	Bhutan	0.681	0.677	0.004
44	126	Tajikistan	0.679	0.677	0.002
45	128	Iraq	0.673	0.667	0.006
46	129	Bangladesh	0.670	0.662	0.008
47	131	Tuvalu	0.653	0.653
48	134	India	0.644	0.633	0.011
49	135	Micronesia	0.634	0.634
50	137	Kiribati	0.628	0.627	0.001
51	139	Laos	0.620	0.615	0.005
52	140	Vanuatu	0.614	0.614
53	144	Myanmar	0.608	0.599	0.009
54	146	Nepal	0.601	0.591	0.010
55	148	Cambodia	0.600	0.596	0.004
56	154	Papua New Guinea	0.568	0.564	0.004
57	155	Timor Leste	0.566	0.574	0.008
58	156	Solomon Islands	0.562	0.564	0.002
59	157	Syria	0.557	0.558	0.001
Low Human Development
60	164	Pakistan	0.540	0.537	0.003
61	182	Afghanistan	0.462	0.473	0.011
62	186	Yemen	0.424	0.425	0.001

Notes

↑ 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.
↑ 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.
↑ 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.
↑ The municipality of Kazbegi is located in Europe, which makes up about 0.1% of Georgia's population.
↑ Two regions of Kazakhstan, namely Atyrau and West Kazakhstan, are partly located in Europe.
↑ Data for China are calculated for mainland China only, excluding Taiwan and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao.
↑ 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.
↑ The districts of Khachmaz, Quba, Qusar, Shabran, and Siazan are geographically in Europe, placing about 5% of Azerbaijan's population in Europe.
↑ 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.
↑ 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.

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Asia is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilisations. Its 4.7 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world's population.

Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns".

A developed country, or advanced country, is a sovereign state that has a high quality of life, developed economy, and advanced technological infrastructure relative to other less industrialized nations. Most commonly, the criteria for evaluating the degree of economic development are the gross domestic product (GDP), gross national product (GNP), the per capita income, level of industrialization, amount of widespread infrastructure and general standard of living. Which criteria are to be used and which countries can be classified as being developed are subjects of debate. Different definitions of developed countries are provided by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank; moreover, HDI ranking is used to reflect the composite index of life expectancy, education, and income per capita. In 2024, 40 countries fit all three criteria, while an additional 20 countries fit two out of three.

The category of newly industrialized country (NIC), newly industrialized economy (NIE) or middle income country is a socioeconomic classification applied to several countries around the world by political scientists and economists. They represent a subset of developing countries whose economic growth is much higher than that of other developing countries; and where the social consequences of industrialization, such as urbanization, are reorganizing society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human Development Index</span> Composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and income indices

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistical composite index of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which is used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores a higher level of HDI when the lifespan is higher, the education level is higher, and the gross national income GNI (PPP) per capita is higher. It was developed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul-Haq and was further used to measure a country's development by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)'s Human Development Report Office.

Development geography is a branch of geography which refers to the standard of living and its quality of life of its human inhabitants. In this context, development is a process of change that affects peoples' lives. It may involve an improvement in the quality of life as perceived by the people undergoing change. However, development is not always a positive process. Gunder Frank commented on the global economic forces that lead to the development of underdevelopment. This is covered in his dependency theory.

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. In 2010, it was supplanted by the UN's Multidimensional Poverty Index.

The Human Development Report (HDR) is an annual Human Development Index report published by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The Happy Planet Index (HPI) is an index of human well-being and environmental impact that was introduced by the New Economics Foundation in 2006. Each country's HPI value is a function of its average subjective life satisfaction, life expectancy at birth, and ecological footprint per capita. The exact function is a little more complex, but conceptually it approximates multiplying life satisfaction and life expectancy and dividing that by the ecological footprint. The index is weighted to give progressively higher scores to nations with lower ecological footprints.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Where-to-be-born Index</span> Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit

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The Education Index is a component of the Human Development Index (HDI) published every year by the United Nations Development Programme. Alongside the economical indicators (GDP) and Life Expectancy Index, it helps measure the educational attainment. GNI (PPP) per capita and life expectancy are also used with the education index to get the HDI of each country.

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References

↑ "History of the Human Development Report". United Nations Development Programme. Archived from the original on 3 April 2009. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
↑ "The Human Development concept". UNDP. 2010. Archived from the original on 15 April 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2011.
↑ "Table 1: Human Development Index and its components".
↑ "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.

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[5] 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.

[6] 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.

[7] 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.

[8] The municipality of Kazbegi is located in Europe, which makes up about 0.1% of Georgia's population.

[9] Two regions of Kazakhstan, namely Atyrau and West Kazakhstan, are partly located in Europe.

[10] Data for China are calculated for mainland China only, excluding Taiwan and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao.

[11] 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.

[12] The districts of Khachmaz, Quba, Qusar, Shabran, and Siazan are geographically in Europe, placing about 5% of Azerbaijan's population in Europe.

[13] 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.

[14] 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.

[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.

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List of countries in Asia and Oceania by Human Development Index

Contents

See also

Notes

Related Research Articles

References