UNDP: More SEE nations among countries with high human development levels

28/12/2007

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia and Romania are ranked among 70 world nations with high levels of human development in an annual UNDP report released in late November.

(Turkish Daily News - 04/12/07; Sofia News Agency - 28/11/07; UNDP, Reuters, Sofia Echo - 27/11/07)

The report was published by UNDP last month. [UNDP]

Albania and Macedonia have achieved improvements that have enabled them for the first time to join the group of nations with high levels of human development, according to the UNDP's annual Human Development Report, released on November 27th.

As in previous years, the report ranks 175 UN member countries, along with Hong Kong and the Palestinian territories, according to their levels of human development, placing them into three groups: high, medium and low. Serbia and Montenegro are among 17 nations not included in the Human Development Index (HDI) rankings this year due to insufficient data.

The index gauges countries' average achievements in three basic dimensions of human development: life expectancy, adult literacy and income, as measured by GDP per capita in purchasing power parity in US dollars. Most of the data used in the assessment is for 2005.

Iceland was ranked first this year, with a score of 0.968, ahead of Norway, which had held the top spot for the previous six years. Australia, Canada and Ireland round out the top five positions.

Albania and Macedonia were included with an overall score of 0.801 each, just 0.001 above the mark dividing the group from that of nations with medium levels of human development.

Albania has moved up five places to 68th after improving its overall score by 0.017, thanks to its higher life expectancy index and an increase in its GDP per capita of more than $300.

Although Macedonia has improved its overall score by 0.005, the country now ranks 69th, down from 66th last year, when the high human development group included 63 nations. Its higher score reflects an increase in its GDP per capita of about $600 and a 0.1% improvement in its combined gross enrollment ratio for primary, secondary and university education, at 70.1% this year.

All other SEE countries, except for Turkey, placed among the 70 nations in the high human development group. Among them, Greece once again ranks highest with a score of 0.926, retaining the 24th place. It has the highest combined gross enrollment ratio for primary, secondary and university education (99%) and, with a GDP per capita of $23,381, Greece has the highest GDP among countries in the region.

With a score of 0.903 -- the same as last year -- Cyprus has moved up a place to be ranked 28th. A life expectancy of 79 years makes it the regional leader in this indicator.

Despite its higher overall score this year -- 0.850, up from 0.841 in the 2006 HDI -- Croatia has slipped three positions to 47th. In terms of adult literacy, which is at 98.1%, it ranks third in the region after Albania and Bulgaria, where 98.7% and 98.2% of the people aged 15 and older are literate, respectively.

Croatia is ahead of both EU members Bulgaria and Romania. However, an improvement of 0.008 in Bulgaria's overall score -- raising it to 0.824 -- has allowed the country to move up one place to 53rd. Compared to the 2006 HDI, the country's GDP per capita has increased by nearly $1,000 to stand at $9,032.

Romania, which joined the EU on January 1st, 2007, along with Bulgaria, is again ranked 60th with an overall score of 0.813, reflecting its lower indices for life expectancy, adult literacy and combined gross enrollment ratio for primary, secondary and university education.

Bosnia and Herzegovina has slipped four positions to 66th, but has slightly improved its overall score, set at 0.803, up from 0.800 last year.

An increase of 0.018 in its overall score, now at 0.755, has allowed Turkey to move up eight places since last year, to be ranked 84th. However, it is still among the 85 nations in the medium human development cluster.

Twenty-two countries -- all in sub-Saharan Africa -- fall into the category of low human development. Mali, Niger, Guinea-Bissau, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone fill the last five positions in the HDI, with scores ranging from 0.380 to 0.336.