Georgia ranks 61 of the 189 countries covered by the 2020 Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
Recognizing that human well-being depends on more than just money, UNDP combines health, education and income to rank the world’s countries. This year Georgia places ahead of Armenia at 81, Azerbaijan at 88 and Ukraine at 74, but behind Russia at 52, Belarus at 53 and Turkey at 54.
The HDI is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living. A long and healthy life is measured by life expectancy. Knowledge level is measured by mean years of schooling among the adult population, which is the average number of years of schooling received in a life-time by people aged 25 years and older; and access to learning and knowledge by expected years of schooling for children of school-entry age, which is the total number of years of schooling a child of school-entry age can expect to receive if prevailing patterns of age-specific enrolment rates stay the same throughout the child's life. Standard of living is measured by Gross National Income (GNI) per capita expressed in constant 2017 international dollars converted using purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion rates.
Georgia’s HDI value for 2019 is 0.812— which put the country in the very high human development category—positioning it at 61 out of 189 countries and territories, reads the UNDP’s briefing note for countries on the 2020 Human Development Report.
Between 2000 and 2019, Georgia’s HDI value increased from 0.690 to 0.812, an increase of 17.7 percent. Between 1990 and 2019, Georgia’s life expectancy at birth increased by 3.4 years, mean years of schooling increased by 1.4 years and expected years of schooling increased by 2.9 years. Georgia’s GNI per capita increased by about 35.3 percent between 1990 and 2019.
According to the report, human development progress, as measured by the HDI, is useful for comparison between two or more countries. For instance, during the period between 2000 and 2019 Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus experienced different degrees of progress toward increasing their HDIs.
Georgia’s 2019 HDI of 0.812 is below the average of 0.898 for countries in the very high human development group and above the average of 0.791 for countries in Europe and Central Asia. From Europe and Central Asia, Georgia is compared with Armenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which have HDIs ranked 81 and 73, respectively.
The HDI is an average measure of basic human development achievements in a country. Like all averages, the HDI masks inequality in the distribution of human development across the population at the country level. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced the IHDI, which takes into account inequality in all three dimensions of the HDI by ‘discounting’ each dimension’s average value according to its level of inequality.
The IHDI is basically the HDI discounted for inequalities. The ‘loss’ in human development due to inequality is given by the difference between the HDI and the IHDI, and can be expressed as a percentage. As the inequality in a country increases, the loss in human development also increases.
The IHDI is basically the HDI discounted for inequalities. The ‘loss’ in human development due to inequality is given by the difference between the HDI and the IHDI, and can be expressed as a percentage. As the inequality in a country increases, the loss in human development also increases.
Georgia’s HDI for 2019 is 0.812. However, when the value is discounted for inequality, the HDI falls to 0.716, a loss of 11.8 percent due to inequality in the distribution of the HDI dimension indices. Armenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina show losses due to inequality of 9.9 percent and 14.5 percent, respectively. The average loss due to inequality for very high HDI countries is 10.9 percent and for Europe and Central Asia it is 11.9 percent. The Human inequality coefficient for Georgia is equal to 11.5 percent.
As for Gender Inequality Index (GII), Georgia has a GII value of 0.331, ranking it 76 out of 162 countries in the 2019 index. In Georgia, 14.8 percent of parliamentary seats are held by women, and 97.2 percent of adult women have reached at least a secondary level of education compared to 98.6 percent of their male counterparts. For every 100,000 live births, 25.0 women die from pregnancy related causes; and the adolescent birth rate is 46.4 births per 1,000 women of ages 15-19. Female participation in the labor market is 57.4 percent compared to 80.8 for men.
In comparison, Armenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are ranked at 54 and 38, respectively.
The 2010 Human Development Report introduced the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which identifies multiple overlapping deprivations suffered by individuals in 3 dimensions: health, education and standard of living. The health and education dimensions are based on two indicators each, while standard of living is based on six indicators.
The most recent survey data that were publicly available for Georgia’s MPI estimation refer to 2018. In Georgia, 0.3 percent of the population (14 thousand people) are multidimensionally poor while an additional 2.1 percent are classified as vulnerable to multidimensional poverty (83 thousand people).
The breadth of deprivation (intensity) in Georgia, which is the average deprivation score experienced by people in multidimensional poverty, is 36.6 percent. The MPI, which is the share of the population that is multidimensionally poor, adjusted by the intensity of the deprivations, is 0.001. Armenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have MPIs of 0.001 and 0.008, respectively.
