Photo finish between Iceland and Norway to top human development ranking :: United Nations Development Programme

Recent Press Releases [more]

Help us restore hope for the people of Haiti

UNDP calls upon the business community in China to rally for Haiti

China’s Pathway Towards a Low Carbon Economy and Society

Recent Speeches [more]

Nineteen Game—the art exhibition on Candlelight Day

Speech at Appointment Ceremony: Dadawa as UNDP China National Goodwill Ambassador

Share on Facebook

Photo finish between Iceland and Norway to top human development ranking The 2007 Human Development Report says Iceland now leads annual United Nations Index

27 November 2007, Brasilia—Iceland has narrowly passed Norway to take the top spot on the Human Development Index (HDI), according to the 2007/2008 Human Development Report (HDR) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today. Norway had held the number one ranking for the previous six years. This change in ranking is a result of new estimates of life expectancy and updated GDP per capita figures, stress the Report authors.

Introduced with the first HDR in 1990, the HDI assesses the state of human development through life expectancy, adult literacy and school enrolment at the primary, secondary and tertiary level, long with income, based on the most recent reliable data from UN partners and other official sources. Due to shifts in how countries report the statistics from which the rankings are calculated, the Index is subject to regular adjustment.

The Index analyses 2005 statistics from 175 UN member countries along with Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region of China) and the occupied Palestinian territories. The HDI rankings this year do not include 17 UN member nations, among them Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia, due to insufficient reliable data.

Twenty-two countries—all in sub-Saharan Africa—fall into the category of “low human development.” In ten of these countries, two children in five will not reach the age of 40; in the case of Zambia that figure rises to one child in two. By contrast, amongst the top 20 countries, only in Denmark and the United States will fewer than 9 children in ten reach the age of 60.

In most countries, including Brazil, China and India, human development has risen over the last 30 years, but some countries have shifted into reverse gear. In all, 16 countries have a lower HDI today than in 1990. Three of these countries—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe—have lower rates of human development than they did in 1975.

Higher development, higher emissions

This year’s HDR, entitled Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world, which focuses on the impact of climate change on the world’s poor and vulnerable, highlights that the role of energy in human development is reflected in the record of emissions of CO2.

According to the Report, the top 20 countries in the HDI emitted more CO2 in 2004 than all the medium and low human development countries combined, while China and India are the largest emitters of CO2 amongst developing countries, together they emitted less in 2004 than the top 32 countries in the HDI excluding the United States. By itself, the United States emitted almost as much as China and India combined in 2004.

For more information, please contact in Ms. Zhang Wei, Communications Officer for UNDP China at (8610) 85320715, or wei.zhang@undp.org. Website: www.undp.org.cn.

UNDP is the UN's global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in 166 countries, working with them on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP and our wide range of partners.