How will the evaluation of the Human Development Index of African Countries will help to
analyse the rate of growth of the African Continent in comparison to the European
Continent in terms of Life Expectancy, Education and Standard of living?
Introduction:
Introduced in 1990, Human development or the human development approach is about
expanding the richness of human life, rather than simply the richness of the economy in
which human beings live. It is an approach that is focused on people and their opportunities
and choices.
One of the achievements of the human development approach, has been to ensure a
growing acceptance of the fact that monetary measures, such as GDP per capita, are
inadequate proxies of development.
The first Human Development Report introduced the Human Development Index (HDI) as a
measure of achievement in the basic dimensions of human development across countries.
HDI is a summary composite measure of a country's average achievements in three basic
aspects of human development: health, knowledge and standard of living. It is a measure of
a country's average achievements in three dimensions of human development:

a long and healthy life, as measured by life expectancy at birth;

knowledge, as measured by mean years of schooling and expected years of
schooling; and

a decent standard of living, as measured by GNI per capita in PPP terms in US$.
HDI is expressed as a value between 0 and 1 with 1 being the highest.
All the countries of the world were classified into one of the four groups, which indicate the
level of human development achieved:




0.00 < HDI < 0.55 – low level of human development;
0.55 < HDI < 0.70 – medium level of human development;
0.70 < HDI < 0.80 – high level of human development and
0.80 < HDI < 1.00 – very high level of human development
Human Development Index measures the socio-economic factors and therefore, is
considered very effective in measuring the performance of a country in terms of these
factors.
Gross Domestic Product
Gross Domestic Product or GDP is referred to as the total monetary value of all the final
goods and services produced within the geographic boundaries of a country, during a given
period (usually a year).
Gross Domestic Product is one of the most important indicators of the economic status of a
country. GDP or Gross Domestic Product is referred to by the economists as the size of an
economy.
GPD is used by businesses and economists to determine the economic performance of the
economy as a whole. A rising GDP is an indicator that the economy is expanding and the
people are spending their money, which shows an economy that is growing stronger.
High GDP also helps investors in taking better investment decisions.
GDP is regarded as the most important of the indicators that are used by economists all over
the world for determining the growth of an economy. It takes into account the total
production of the country during a year.
It serves as a major factor that is used for determining the development of the economy and
a very important parameter for estimating the performance of an economy.
The following is the list of top 5 countries based on GDP.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
USA
China
Japan
Germany
India
Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is an economic metric that breaks down a
country's economic output per person. Economists use GDP per capita to determine
how prosperous countries are based on their economic growth GDP per capita is
calculated by dividing the GDP of a nation by its population. Countries with the
higher GDP per capita tend to be those that are industrial, developed countries.
GDP per capita = Real GDP/Population
Method:
The HDI and GDP per Capita of major European and African countries has been
retrieved from World Economics sites to analyse the relation between the two
parameters.
(The data was taken from the resources available on the internet so, the readings should only
be taken for the reference and understanding purpose.)
HDI and Ranking
GDP per Capita (USD)
and Ranking
Country
South
Africa
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
0.726
0.736 0.727
0.713
$19,331
109
68
0.575
$6,930
152
96
0.549
$4,181
160
100
0.802
$27,147
63
35
0.632
$2,521
133
139
0.508
$752
172
178
105
Kenya
0.577
152
Tanzania
0.538
162
Mauritius
0.811
61
Ghana
0.620
137
Sudan
0.514
169
101
102
0.581 0.578
152
150
0.548 0.548
160
160
0.817 0.804
59
62
0.631 0.632
137
135
0.514 0.510
170
171
Table1: HDI and ranking, GDP per Capita of Countries in African Continent
HDI and Ranking
GDP per Capita
(USD) and Ranking
Country
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
United
Kingdom
0.929
0.935 0.924
0.929
50,756
18
7
0.961
99,481
2
3
0.942
59,719
9
14
0.876
44,280
34
36
0.773
12,468
77
73
0.903
44,747
28
26
16
Norway
0.962
1
Germany
0.945
5
Poland
0.877
36
Ukraine
0.783
74
France
0.901
27
17
17
0.961 0.959
2
1
0.948 0.944
5
7
0.881 0.876
36
36
0.786 0.775
74
78
0.905 0.898
28
28
Table2: HDI and ranking, GDP per Capita of Countries in European Continent
Conclusion
The higher the per capita GDP is, the higher the HDI score and ranking. There is some
variation about the mean, especially among the poorest nations. However, to achieve high
levels of socioeconomic well-being appears to require high levels of per capita GDP, which
can only be achieved by high rates of growth and therefore both are correlated.
1
2
3
As the above chart indicates, HDI is directly linked to the economic development of a
country. Countries with low per capita income have low HDI and as the Per Capita Income
increases above USD 20- 25k, the HDI improves to a healthy level of 0.8 and above. In
summary,
Group 1- Low Income and Low HDI
Group 3- High Income and High HDI
Group 2- Mid Income and Mid-High HDI
Research Question
Action Plan
What to
research?
Why research
it?
Which
sites or
sources
can help
me with
this?
Human
Development
Index
and
Gross
Domestic
Product per
capita
to
African and
European
Countries.
To develop an
understanding
of the relation
between HDI
and GDP per
Capita
and
how they vary
in
both
continents.
World
Economic
Data
When
should I
have
completed
this part?
https://countryeconomy.com/
https://www.macrotrends.net/
World
Statistic
sites
Research
papers
Where did I find the information?
Documentation
https://www.worldeconomics.com/
17th April
2023
Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Relationship with Human Development
Index (HDI) and Poverty Rate in
Malaysia
Online at https://mpra.ub.unimuenchen.de/22997/ MPRA Paper No.
22997, posted 01 Jun 2010 17:30 UTC
Online at https://mpra.ub.unimuenchen.de/22997/ MPRA Paper No.
22997, posted 01 Jun 2010 17:30 UTC
Education
Sites like
Byjus
https://byjus.com/commerce/grossdomestic-product/
Guidance
of
Financial
Analyst
My Teacher and Father mentored
me through the process.