Human Development Index 2020

(3 March 2021) The latest Human Development Report (HDR), published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in December 2020, is the 30th-anniversary edition of this study. The 2020 edition, which analyzes data for 2019, stresses the importance of minimizing the pressures exerted by people on the planet while advancing human development. These pressures have increased interactions between humans, livestock, and wildlife, squeezing local ecosystems in ways that enable deadly viruses like COVID-19 to emerge more frequently. The rapid spread of COVID-19, in turn, exacerbated numerous inequalities in human development.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite index used by UNDP to reflect the achievements of countries and regions in three key fields of human development: healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. The chief aim of the HDI is to provide nations with a comprehensive measure of the opportunities for personal fulfillment available to their people. The higher the country's HDI, the better the conditions in which its citizens live and work.

The HDI is calculated on the basis of three indices: the life expectancy index, education index, and GNI index. Since this calculation captures only a part of what human development entails, the HDR also offers additional composite indices on other critical issues of human development: a gender inequality index, gender development index, red list index, environmental performance index, export concentration index, and more.

Key findings from the latest report:

• In 2019, a few countries saw a drop in HDI ranking. Among them are Venezuela, Belarus, the Russian Federation, India, Brazil, Germany, and Belgium. Venezuela experienced a dramatic fall in the rankings on 12 of the indices due to the worsening economic situation.
• The HDI growth of the medium human development group decreased three years in a row and showed negative growth in 2019. The HDI growth for the high human development group remained almost stable, while the very high human development and low human development groups experienced rapid HDI growth in 2019.
• The HDI 2020 report emphasizes the increased importance of climate change and biodiversity loss issues, stating that countries with very high human development are the biggest CO2 emitters. In contrast, countries with low human development emit the least carbon dioxide but generally have a higher degree of environmental degradation.