"Economic vulnerability index" is one of the criteria used by the United Nations Committee for Development Policy, an advisory body to the United Nations Economic and Social Council in the identification of Least Developed Countries.
The Economic Vulnerability Index is a composition of the following eight indicators: 1) population size, 2) remoteness, 3) merchandise export concentration, 4) share of agriculture, forestry and fisheries in gross domestic product, 5) homelessness owing to natural disasters, 6) instability of agricultural production, and 7) instability of exports of goods and services, 8) the share of population living in low elevated coastal zone.
The other criteria used to classify countries as least developed are: Gross national income per capita and the Human Asset Index. In addition, only low-income countries with population smaller than 75 million inhabitants can be considered for inclusion in the category.
Retrospective series have been also calculated for 1990–2011.