Human geographyLesson 2 of 3 in the course Development and globalisation

Human Development Index: Components, Calculation, and Interpretation

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

The Human Development Index (HDI) offers a way to compare countries using more than economic output alone. This lesson introduces its purpose, the human development approach behind it, and the inequality-adjusted measure developed later.

A country tends to receive a higher HDI when people live longer, have greater access to education, and have higher income per person. The index is also used to rank countries and group them into four human-development tiers.

All flashcards

What is the Human Development Index (HDI)?
A composite measure summarizing health, education, and standard of living using life expectancy, schooling, and GNI per capita at PPP.
What does the human development approach emphasize?
People’s capabilities, real opportunities, and freedom to choose what they can be and do.
How does the inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI) differ from the HDI?
The IHDI adjusts human-development achievements for inequality; the HDI represents potential achievement under an assumption of no inequality.
How are the three modern HDI dimension indices combined?
Using their geometric mean: HDI=LEI⋅EI⋅II3HDI = \sqrt[3]{LEI \cdot EI \cdot II}.
Why does the modern HDI use a logarithm for income?
It gives income increases a diminishing effect as income levels rise.

Quiz questions

  1. Which dimensions does the HDI combine?Answer: Health, education, and standard of living.
  2. What is one effect of using a geometric mean for the modern HDI?Answer: It limits how much a high value in one dimension offsets a low value in another.
  3. What does the IHDI adjust for?Answer: Inequality in human-development achievements.
  4. Why should a reader check the data year behind an HDI ranking?Answer: The report’s publication year may differ from the year of the underlying data.
  5. Which measure was developed to account for environmental pressures?Answer: The planetary pressures-adjusted Human Development Index.

Based on the Wikipedia article Human Development Index, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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