The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has just published the Human Development Index (HDI) report for 168 countries (2016). In this report Haiti ranks 163rd.

It should be noted that the objective of the HDI is to try to measure the level of development of the countries, without simply keeping to their economic weight measured by the gross domestic product (GDP) or the GDP per capita. It therefore integrates more qualitative data. It is an indicator that synthesizes (it is called composite or synthetic indicator) of three sets of data :

Health / longevity (measured by life expectancy at birth), which makes it possible to measure indirectly the satisfaction of essential material needs such as access to a healthy diet, drinking water, decent housing, good hygiene and medical care.

Knowledge or level of education. It is measured by the average length of schooling for adults over 25 and the expected duration of schooling for school-aged children. It reflects the satisfaction of intangible needs such as the ability to participate in decision-making in the workplace or in society.

The standard of living (logarithm of gross income per capita at purchasing power parity), in order to encompass elements of quality of life that are not described by the first two indices such as mobility or access to culture.

Note that the higher the HDI value is close to 1, the higher the level of development of the country is high.

According to these criteria, Haiti with an HDI of 0.493 out of 1, ranks 163 out of 188 countries. Its gender development index is 0.593 and its multidimensional poverty index is 0.242. The Dominican Republic, ranked 99th, well ahead of Haiti with an HDI of 0.722 out of 1. It ranks in the category of countries with a high HDI such as China (0.738). Its gender development index is of 0.990 and Multidimensional Poverty Index is 0.025.

Among the countries with a low HDI, only Haiti is part of the Latin America and Caribbean region. The rest are mainly from Asia and Africa.

In the region Chile (0.847) and Argentina (0.827) are ranked respectively in 38th position and 45th position.

Norway ranks first, followed by Australia and Switzerland. Canada and the United States ranked 10th

HL/ HaitiLibre