Belarus ahead of CIS countries on HDI rankings

Belarus is ahead of the CIS countries in terms of human development, BelTA learnt from the National Statistics Committee.

According to the latest Human Development report published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Belarus has improved its position in the HDI international rankings, and is now ranked 50th among 187 nations.

Human Development Index (HDI) is an integrated indicator used for cross-country comparisons and calculated annually on the basis of the following UNDP components: A long and healthy life (life expectancy at birth); Education index (mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling); A decent standard of living (GNI per capita (PPP US$)

Belarus, as before, is in the group of the countries with high Human Development Index: in 2012 HDI was 0.793, in 2011 - -0.756, in 2010 - 0.732.

The international index value of the country has improved in three out of four HDI indicators: life expectancy at birth (70.3 to 70.6 years), mean years of schooling (from 9.3 to 11.5 years), expected years of schooling (from 14.6 to 14.7 years). As for the fourth HDI tier, Belarus ranks 61st in gross national income per capita.

Over the years, our country has been leading among the CIS on HDI rankings. Some CIS countries, alongside with Belarus, is also in the high HDI grouping. According to the HDI Report 2013, Russia is 55th, Kazakhstan 69th, Ukraine 78th, Azerbaijan 82nd, and Armenia 87th. Other CIS states (Turkmenistan, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan) make part of the medium HDI group.

Norway (HDI at 0.955), Australia (0.938), the United States (0.937), the Netherlands (0.921) and Germany (0.920) make up the top five countries with very high human development index. Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger have the lowest scores in the HDI’s measurement.