Measuring Human Development (DP IB Global Politics: HL): Revision Note

What is human development?

• Human development refers to the expansion of people's freedoms and opportunities, beyond simply measuring economic output

• A range of indices have been developed to measure different aspects of human development, including health, education, living standards, inequality and wellbeing

• The most widely used is the Human Development Index (HDI), produced by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

• Other key measures include the Human Poverty Index (HPI), the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), the Gini Index and the Happy Planet Index

• Each measure has strengths and limitations

  • No single index fully captures the complexity of human development

Human Development Index (HDI)

• The Human Development Index is a measure of a state's development based on life expectancy, education and income levels

  • It is used by the UN Development Programme and other actors because it offers a composite index of human development

• In considering factors beyond economic growth, it indicates people’s capability to lead:

  • long healthy lives measured by life expectancy at birth

  • lives enriched with opportunities to learn measured by years of schooling

  • decent standard of living measured by gross national income (GNI)
    

How HDI is determined

1. Long and healthy life

• Measured using life expectancy at birth

• This is turned into a life expectancy index

• It shows how healthy a population is

2. Knowledge (education)

• Measured using:

  • Expected years of schooling

  • Mean years of schooling

• These are combined into an education index

• It shows access to and quality of education

3. A decent standard of living

• Measured using GNI per capita (PPP $)

• This becomes the GNI index

• It shows average income and living standards

2025 HDI rankings

Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach

• Sen supports the idea that true development goes beyond economic growth by enabling people to have the freedom to reach their full potential

• His ideas support the use of more complex measurements such as the HDI

Human Poverty Index (HPI) and Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

• The Human Poverty Index (HPI) was introduced by the United Nations Development Program in 1997

  • It was later replaced by the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) in 2010

• HPI measured deprivation at the national level

  • This meant it could obscure differences between individuals within a state

• The MPI was developed to address this by measuring poverty at the level of individual people and households

MPI indicators

• States are ranked from 0 to 1 in terms of the proportion of people they have living in multidimensional poverty

  • The higher the score, the more poverty is present

• In 2025 The UN Development Programme (UNDP) estimated 

  • 1.1 billion people live in multidimensional poverty in 109 states globally

  • 740 million of the 1.1 billion live in middle-income countries

• Therefore, people living in multidimensional poverty are largely found in states that appear to be developing economically.

• The purpose of the MPI is to identify who is poor and what their greatest needs are

  • This information can then be used by states, IGOs and NGOs to more specifically identify areas of focus

Gini Index and Happy Planet Index

• Gini measures the distribution of wealth in a state

  • This is significant because a high GDP does not always mean all people share in this wealth

• The Happy Planet Index takes opinion poll and environmental sustainability data into account to determine social development

Gini vs. Happy Planet