United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has been presenting the measurement of human development in terms of a Human Development Index since 1990. The HDI is a composite index of three social indicators: life expectancy, adult literacy and years of schooling. It also takes into account

real GDP per capita. Thus, the HDI is a composite index of achievements in three fundamental dimensions: a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living. The HDI value of a country is calculated by taking three indicators:

1. Longevity, as measured by life expectancy at birth: 25 years and 85 years.

2. Educational attainment, as measured by a combination of adult literacy (two-thirds weight) and combined primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment ratios (one-third weight) i.e., adult literacy: 0% to 100% and combined enrolment ratio: 0% to 100%.

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3. Standard of living, as measured by real GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity in terms of dollar (PPP$): $ 100 and $ 40,000.

The HDI is a simple average of life expectancy index, educational attainment index, and the adjusted real GDP per capital (PPP$) index. It is calculated by dividing the sum of these three indices by 3. The maximum and minimum values for each variable which are fixed are reduced to a scale between 0 and 1, with each country at some point of the scale.

The HDI value for each country indicates the distance it has travelled towards the maximum possible value of 1 and how far it has to go to attain certain defined goals: and average life span of 85 years, access to education for all and a decent standard of living. The HDI ranks countries in relation to each other. A country’s HDI ranks is within the world distribution i.e., it is based on its HDI value in relation to each developed and developing country for which the particular country has travelled from the minimum HDI value of 0 towards the maximum HDI value of 1. Countries with an HDI value below 0.5 are considered to have a low level of human development, those between 0.5 to 0.8 a medium level and those above 0.8 a high level.