WASHINGTON: Pakistan was ranked at 161st position among 191 countries on UN’s 2022/23 Human Development Index (HDI)’s annual rankings — three steps up from the 2021/22 ranking, according to a new UN Development Programme (UNDP) report. The HDI is a composite of statistics measuring such factors as per capita income, educational attainment and life expectancy.
In the last (2021/22) HDI ranking, Pakistan was placed at 164, amid global fall in development set off by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first UNDP Human Development Report (HDR) was prepared and launched in 1990 under the leadership of the late Dr. Mahbubul Haq, a former Pakistan finance minister.
The latest report, ‘Breaking the gridlock’, revealed widening disparities between the haves and the have-nots, despite record high global human development scores in 2023. The 2023 HDI stands at a new high following steep decline during 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said. Rich countries experienced unprecedented development, the Human Development Report details, yet half of the world’s poorest nations continue to languish below their pre-COVID crisis levels.
India ranked at 132nd on the HDI index; Sri Lanka: 73rd; Bangladesh: 129th; Maldives: 90; Nepal: 143; Bhutan 127 and Afghanistan 180. Switzerland tops this year’s rankings, followed by Norway and Iceland, while Central African Republic (CAR), South Sudan and Somalia lagged the furthest behind. –Agencies
