Counting What Counts in Development
When statisticians compare countries, they rely on commensurable data, like life expectancy and per capita income. But such metrics, while useful, do not tell the entire story of human development, which can be revealed only by understanding how quantitative progress affects the quality of people’s lives.
NEW YORK – To most people, “development” is best measured by the quantity of change – like gains in average income, life expectancy, or years spent in school. The Human Development Index (HDI), a composite measure of national progress that my office at the United Nations Development Programme oversees, combines all three statistics to rank countries relative to one another.