Physical quality-of-life index

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The physical quality-of-life index (PQLI) is an attempt to measure the quality of life or well-being of a country. The value is a single number derived from basic literacy rate, infant mortality, and life expectancy at age one, all equally weighted on a 0 to 100 scale.

It was developed for the Overseas Development Council in the mid-1970s by Morris David Morris, as one of a number of measures created due to dissatisfaction with the use of GNP as an indicator of development. PQLI might be regarded as an improvement but shares the general problems of measuring quality of life in a quantitative way.

The UN Human Development Index is a more widely used means of measuring well-being.

The physical quality of life is an average of three statistics; literacy rate, infant mortality rate, and life expectancy. However before these statistics can be averaged, infant mortality and life expectancy must be indexed. It is the indexed infant mortality rate, indexed mortality rate and the literacy rate that is averaged out to give the Physical Quality of Life value.

Human Development Index

The UN Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, childbirth, and other factors for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. The index was developed in 1990 by the Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, and has been used since 1993 by the United Nations Development Programme in its annual Human Development Report.

The HDI measures the average achievements in a country in three basic dimensions of human development:

• A long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth.
• Knowledge, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weight) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrolment ratio (with one-third weight).
• A decent standard of living, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita at purchasing power parity (PPP) in USD.

Each year, UN member states are listed and ranked according to these measures. Those high on the list often advertise it, as a means of attracting talented immigrants (economically, individual capital) or discouraging emigration.

An alternative measure, focusing on the amount of poverty in a country, is the Human Poverty Index.

Top thirty countries (HDI range from 0.963 down to 0.878)

Note: Number in parentheses indicates change in rank since last report

The bottom ten countries are Mozambique, Burundi, Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Niger (last)

World map indicating HDI of UN member states, 2003.

Method used to calculate the Human Development Index

In general to transform a raw variable, say x, into a unit-free index between 0 and 1 (which allows different indices to be added together), the following formula is used:

·      x-index =

where and are the lowest and highest values the variable x can attain, respectively.

The Human Development Index (HDI) then represents the average of the following three general indices:

·      Life Expectancy Index =

·      Education Index =

·      Adult Literacy Index (ALI) =

·      Gross Enrolment Index (GEI) =

·      GDP Index =

LE: Life expectancy
ALR: Adult literacy rate
CGER: Combined gross enrolment ratio
GDPpc: GNP per capita at PPP in USD

2005 report

The report for 2005 shows that, in general, the HDI for countries around the world is improving, with two major exceptions: Post-Soviet states, and Sub-Saharan Africa, both of which show steady decline. Worsening education, economies, and mortality rates have contributed to HDI declines amongst countries in the first group, while HIV/AIDS and concomitant mortality is the principal cause of decline in the second group.

Most of the data used for the 2005 report, indicating country HDIs for 2003, are derived largely from 2003 or earlier. Not all UN member states choose to or are able to provide the necessary statistics. Notable absences from the list (excluding micro-states) are Afghanistan, Iraq, Liberia, North Korea, Serbia and Montenegro, and Somalia. While these countries are either unwilling or unable to provide data, they are generally considered countries of medium to low human development.

An HDI below 0.5 is considered to represent low development and 30 of the 32 countries in that category are located in Africa, with the exceptions of Haiti and Yemen. The bottom ten countries are all in Africa. The highest-scoring Sub-Saharan country, South Africa, is ranked 120th (with an HDI of 0.658), which is well above most other countries in the region.

An HDI 0.8 or more is considered to represent high development. This includes countries of northern and western Europe, Australia, Israel, Canada, the United States, and Japan. Other countries that exhibit high human development amidst countries with lower HDIs include (with their position) South Korea (28th), Costa Rica (47th), Cuba (52nd), and Panama (56th).

The following countries or territories are not ranked in the 2005 Human Development Index, for being unable or unwilling to provide the necessary data.

The United States has among developed countries the highest income disparity, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient for the Gini Coefficient.  It yields a number between 1 & 0, with 0 being perfect distribution.  The U.S. is in the .40-.44 range, whereas Germany is in the .25-29 range as is all of Scandinavia.  France, Spain, Canada, among others is in the 30-34 range.  The U.S. ranks 92^nd from the top, yet is 4^th on the basis of GDP.--jk.

While most developed European nations tend to have Gini coefficients between 0.24 and 0.36, the United States Gini coefficient is above 0.4, indicating that the United States has greater inequality. Using the Gini can help quantify differences in welfare and compensation policies and philosophies.