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.
The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq[1] and Indian economist Amartya Sen.[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 8 September 2022 and based on data collected in 2021.[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, as well as Nauru and Tuvalu in Oceania 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 | HDI value (2021) |
Change in HDI value 2020-21 | ||||
Very High Human Development | |||||||
1 | 4 | Hong Kong, China (SAR)[note 1] | 0.952 | 0.003 | |||
2 | 5 | Australia | 0.951 | 0.004 | |||
3 | 12 | Singapore | 0.939 | ||||
4 | 13 | New Zealand | 0.937 | 0.001 | |||
5 | 19 | Japan | 0.925 | 0.002 | |||
5 | 19 | South Korea | 0.925 | 0.003 | |||
7 | 22 | Israel | 0.919 | 0.002 | |||
8 | 26 | United Arab Emirates | 0.911 | 0.001 | |||
9 | 29 | Cyprus[note 2] | 0.896 | 0.002 | |||
10 | 35 | Saudi Arabia | 0.875 | 0.005 | |||
10 | 35 | Bahrain | 0.875 | 0.002 | |||
12 | 42 | Qatar | 0.855 | 0.001 | |||
13 | 48 | Turkey[note 3] | 0.838 | 0.005 | |||
14 | 50 | Kuwait | 0.831 | 0.009 | |||
15 | 51 | Brunei | 0.829 | 0.001 | |||
16 | 52 | Russia[note 4] | 0.822 | 0.008 | |||
17 | 54 | Oman | 0.816 | 0.011 | |||
18 | 56 | Kazakhstan[note 5] | 0.811 | 0.003 | |||
19 | 62 | Malaysia | 0.803 | 0.003 | |||
20 | 63 | Georgia[note 6] | 0.802 | ||||
21 | 66 | Thailand | 0.800 | 0.002 | |||
High Human Development | |||||||
22 | 73 | Sri Lanka | 0.782 | 0.002 | |||
23 | 76 | Iran | 0.774 | 0.003 | |||
24 | 79 | China[note 7] | 0.768 | 0.004 | |||
25 | 80 | Palau | 0.767 | 0.006 | |||
26 | 85 | Armenia[note 8] | 0.759 | 0.002 | |||
27 | 90 | Maldives | 0.747 | 0.013 | |||
28 | 91 | Azerbaijan[note 9] | 0.745 | 0.015 | |||
28 | 91 | Turkmenistan | 0.745 | 0.004 | |||
30 | 91 | Tonga | 0.745 | ||||
31 | 96 | Mongolia | 0.739 | 0.006 | |||
32 | 97 | Egypt[note 10] | 0.731 | 0.003 | |||
33 | 99 | Fiji | 0.730 | 0.007 | |||
34 | 101 | Uzbekistan | 0.727 | 0.006 | |||
35 | 102 | Jordan | 0.720 | 0.003 | |||
36 | 106 | Palestine | 0.715 | 0.001 | |||
37 | 111 | Samoa | 0.707 | 0.005 | |||
38 | 112 | Lebanon | 0.706 | 0.020 | |||
39 | 114 | Indonesia[note 11] | 0.705 | 0.004 | |||
40 | 115 | Vietnam | 0.703 | 0.007 | |||
Medium Human Development | |||||||
41 | 116 | Philippines | 0.699 | 0.011 | |||
42 | 118 | Kyrgyzstan | 0.692 | 0.003 | |||
42 | 121 | Iraq | 0.686 | 0.007 | |||
44 | 122 | Tajikistan | 0.685 | 0.021 | |||
45 | 127 | Bhutan | 0.666 | 0.002 | |||
46 | 129 | Bangladesh | 0.661 | 0.006 | |||
47 | 132 | India | 0.633 | 0.009 | |||
48 | 131 | Marshall Islands | 0.639 | ||||
49 | 134 | Micronesia | 0.628 | 0.001 | |||
50 | 136 | Kiribati | 0.624 | 0.001 | |||
51 | 140 | Laos | 0.607 | 0.001 | |||
51 | 140 | East Timor | 0.607 | 0.007 | |||
51 | 140 | Vanuatu | 0.607 | 0.001 | |||
54 | 143 | Nepal | 0.602 | 0.002 | |||
55 | 146 | Cambodia | 0.593 | 0.003 | |||
56 | 149 | Myanmar | 0.585 | 0.015 | |||
57 | 150 | Syria | 0.577 | ||||
58 | 155 | Solomon Islands | 0.564 | 0.001 | |||
59 | 156 | Papua New Guinea | 0.558 | 0.002 | |||
Low Human Development | |||||||
60 | 161 | Pakistan | 0.544 | 0.001 | |||
61 | 180 | Afghanistan | 0.478 | 0.005 | |||
62 | 183 | Yemen | 0.455 | 0.005 |