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This is a list of all countries by Human Development Index as reported in the United Nations Human Development Report for 1998, compiled on the basis of estimates for 1995. It covers 158 UN member states (out of the then 192) and Hong Kong, China. 24 UN member states are not included due to lack of data. The average HDI of regions of the World and groups of countries are also included for comparison.
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The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an underdeveloped country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian economist Amartya Sen.
Countries fall into four broad human development categories, each of which comprises 42 countries (except for the second category, comprising 43 countries). The divisions are:
Due to the new methodology adopted in 2010 HD Report, its HDI figures appear lower than the HDI figures in previous reports.
Starting in the report for 2007, the first category is referred to as developed countries, and the last three are all grouped in developing countries. The original "high human development" category has been split into two as above in the report for 2007.
Some older groupings (high/medium/low income countries) have been removed that were based on the gross domestic product (GDP) in purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita, and have been replaced by another index based on the gross national income (GNI) in purchasing power parity per capita.