Which one of the following dimensions is not included in Human Development Index?
- (a)Life Expectancy at birth
- (b)Mean years of schooling
- (c)Expected years of schooling
- (d)Mortality rate
Correct — D, Mortality rate. The Human Development Index has three dimensions — a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living — captured by four indicators. Health is measured by life expectancy at birth. Knowledge is measured by two indicators together, expected years of schooling for a child entering school and mean years of schooling for adults aged 25 and above. Standard of living is measured by gross national income per capita at purchasing power parity. The index is the geometric mean of the three dimension indices. Mortality rate never appears: it is an input to life expectancy rather than a dimension of the index, and the specific measures the Human Development Report uses elsewhere, such as under-five mortality or maternal mortality, belong to other composite indices and to the Sustainable Development Goal dashboards, not to the Human Development Index itself.
- (a)Life Expectancy at birth — This is the health indicator of the index, so it is included.
- (b)Mean years of schooling — One of the two education indicators — years of schooling already completed by adults aged 25 and over.
- (c)Expected years of schooling — The second education indicator — the years of schooling a child entering school today can expect to receive.
The Human Development Index was introduced in the first Human Development Report in 1990 to shift the measure of development away from income alone. Since the 2010 report it has been computed as the geometric mean of three normalised dimension indices, using life expectancy at birth, the pair of schooling indicators, and gross national income per capita at purchasing power parity. The Report also publishes the inequality-adjusted index, the Gender Development and Gender Inequality Indices and the Multidimensional Poverty Index alongside it.
The item is testing whether the four indicators are known precisely rather than approximately. The distractor works because mortality feels like a health measure and health is one of the three dimensions; the discipline is to remember that the health dimension is represented by exactly one indicator, life expectancy at birth. It is also worth remembering the 2010 change, when income was switched from GDP per capita to gross national income per capita and the arithmetic mean was replaced by a geometric mean, so that a poor score on one dimension can no longer be fully offset by a strong score on another.
- Three dimensions: a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living.
- Four indicators: life expectancy at birth; expected years of schooling; mean years of schooling; gross national income per capita at purchasing power parity.
- The index is a geometric mean of the three dimension indices, a method adopted in the 2010 Human Development Report.
- In the Human Development Report 2023-24, which uses 2022 data, India's index value was 0.644 and its rank 134.
- Adding mortality, literacy rate or population growth to the indicator list — literacy was in the pre-2010 index but is not in the current one.
- Saying GDP per capita instead of gross national income per capita.
- Assuming the index is an average of the three dimensions; since 2010 it is a geometric mean.
As a which-one-is-not-included item on the indicators, or as a ranking question on countries in a named Human Development Report.
Human Development Index comprises literacy rates, life expectancy at birth and
- (a) Gross Domestic Product per head in US dollars
- (b) Gross Domestic Product per head at real purchasing power
- (c) Gross National Product in US dollars
- (d) National Income per head in US dollars
Answer(b) Gross Domestic Product per head at real purchasing power
The same index at an earlier stage of its life. That question reflects the pre-2010 formulation built on literacy and output per head at purchasing power parity; the modern index keeps the three dimensions but measures knowledge by the two schooling indicators and living standards by gross national income per capita.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The standard of living dimension of the Human Development Index is measured by
- (a)gross domestic product per capita at current prices
- (b)gross national income per capita at purchasing power parity
- (c)per capita consumption expenditure
- (d)the poverty headcount ratio
Answer(b) gross national income per capita at purchasing power parity — the 2010 Human Development Report replaced GDP per capita with this measure.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Human Development Index is computed as
- (a)the arithmetic mean of three dimension indices
- (b)the geometric mean of three dimension indices
- (c)the sum of four indicator values
- (d)a weighted average with income given double weight
Answer(b) the geometric mean of three dimension indices — adopted in 2010 so that weakness in one dimension is not fully offset by strength in another.