Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite summary measure of average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. Conceived by Mahbub ul Haq with Amartya Sen and first published in the UNDP Human Development Report of 1990, it was designed as a deliberate alternative to GNI per capita, asserting that people and their capabilities — not economic growth alone — are the ultimate criterion for assessing the development of a country. Each dimension is reduced to a normalized index between zero and one, and the three are combined by a geometric mean.
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Sources
- UNDP (2022). Human Development Report 2021-22, Technical Notes. United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Report Office, New York. link ↗
- Anand, S., & Sen, A. (1994). Human Development Index: Methodology and Measurement. Human Development Report Office Occasional Paper. UNDP, New York. link ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Human Development Index (HDI). ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/development-studies/human-development-index
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