New UN Human Development Data Released

The UN has released Human Development Data for 2004 (it usually lags by about 2 years).  The changes per year are not large, but the website has added a new feature by which the Human Development Index (HDI) of a country can be graphed and compared to other regions of the world.

Currently, if the world is divided into three categories of human development (high, medium, and low), the distribution is as follows (from Wikipedia).  The immediate observation is that outside of Africa, extreme poverty is a rare occurance in the modern world. 

 

The older 2003 data is divided into finer segments to provide greater precision :

Upon examination of the data by country, a few other points present themselves :

Only 20 countries had a score greater than 0.800 in 1975, but by 2004, 63 countries had crossed that barrier.  This can be linked entirely to the diffusion of technology, spread of globalization, and the emergence of the United States as the dominant economic model in the world, creating win-win trade arrangements with many other countries.  The progress in HDI across the world thus mirrors a corresponding rise in democracy, which I have argued has led to a drop in warfare. 

Ireland used to be significantly behind Britain, France, and Germany, but has now overtaken them.  Guess what Ireland's tax rates are compared to those of the other three?

For all the media gloom about the US falling behind other countries, it has been ahead of the composite average of OECD countries by about the same margin for the last 30 years.  The US economic growth rate continues to be higher than the average for OECD nations. 

Mexico is considered to be a poor country, with a reputation for having citizens who seek to escape to the United States.  However, it is still better off than most of the countries in the Eastern Hemisphere, including Russia and Saudi Arabia. 

China will soon overtake Russia, which is still at a lower level than it was at in 1990.  The rapid improvements in China have greatly reduced the total number of the world's people living in extreme poverty.  Russia, on the other hand has been overtaken by at least 25 other countries over just the last 15 years. 

Related :

These Are The Best of Times

The Winds of War, the Sands of Time

Why the US Will Still be the Only Superpower in 2030

The Age of Democracy

Economic Growth is Exponential and Accelerating

The Biggest Event of the Last 15 Years : The Stunning Defeat of Socialism

Comments

[Bill]

Hi. I think you mean precision instead of accuracy.

[Bingo Bango Boingo]

GK,

It would be better to say "the US is ahead of all other OECD countries taken as a whole". This sounds a little more accurate as there are 6 or 7 OECD countries which are ahead of the US.

Cheers
BBB

[Jason]

Wait! This isn't the world the mainstream media has been telling me about... and they wouldn't lie to me... would they?

[NahnCee]

What are the grey areas that are seen in on both maps? They appear to be maybe Somalia, Iraq and Afghanistan - maybe - but there are dibs and dabs of other grey areas all over both maps. Would those maybe be countries so heavily into war that their economy, development or lifestyle can't be judged?

Poor little orange Haiti.

[GK]

NahnCee,

Haiti is actually a solid red in the first map. The only country in the Western Hemi to be Africa-poor.

Gray areas have unreliable data. This certainly means they don't have a high score, but are not necessarily at the very bottom. Iraq's per capita income is nowhere near as bad as, say, Haiti.

[cokaygne]

Love your blog. This post shows all of the blog's strengths: you take a world-wide view and not assume that western Europe is the world; you are an optimist not because you are a fool but because the historical evidence for optimism is right there in front of you; and above all you recognize that technological development AND entrepreneurship together engender accelerating progress. One thing you point out, however, and I agree with you, is that the US is losing ground relative to countries like India and China. I fear that is because too many Americans are becoming like western Europeans. Your blog should be required reading for US elites.

[moleza]

This is very good teaching material. Thanks.

[Conrad]

Nice post. I agree with outhers here that this kind of info is what you do best.

However, I'm a little curious as to why you have done no blogging about Iraq and the US elections lately. Are you still optimistic about an Iraqi victory? Are you still certain it is only left-wing defeatists who are pessimistic about Iraq? What do you say now of Bush's Iraq policy, his implementation, his competency, etc.? I know we've had some harsh exchanges about these issues, and I don't want to scream "I told you so", but it would be interesting to know if your views have evolved in this area or not? What of the intense criticism Bush has come under from conservative quarters, something I tried to tell you about but which you were deaf to?

Anyway, don't you owe your readers some comments about all this? Maybe not, but it would still be interesting to know if you are still under the spell, or if you are waking up to the nasty truth about these guys.

[charlotte vale]

Iraq and Afghanistan - maybe - but there are dibs and dabs of other grey areas all over both maps