Human Development Foundation

Definitions

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORTS (HDR) HDR are published annually by Oxford University Press for the UNDP since 1990. Each report monitors the progress of humanity through country rankings by the HDI, in addition to exploring a new policy issue in depth.

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX (HDI) A composite index of socioeconomic progress which has three key components.
- Longevity as measured by life expectancy at birth.
- Knowledge measured by adult literacy (2/3 weight) and mean years of schooling (1/3 weight).
- Income measured by current global average real GDP per capita in "purchasing power parity" dollars.

RGNPI RANK MINUS HDI RANK Real GNP Rank. The gross national product divided by the population. Annual GNP's per capita are expressed in current US dollars. GNP per capita growth rates are annual average growth rates that have been computed by fitting trend lines to the logarithmic values of GNP per capita at constant market prices for each year of the time period.

HUMAN FREEDOM INDEX (HFI)

GENDER RELATED DEVELOPMENT INDEX (GDI)

GENDER EMPOWERMENT MEASURE (GEM)

BIRTH RATE (CRUDE) The annual number of births per 1,000 population.

CONTRACEPTIVE PREVALENCE RATE The percentage of married women of childbearing age who are using, or whose husbands are using, any form of contraception: that is, modern or traditional methods.

DEATH RATE (CRUDE) The annual number of deaths per 1,000 population.

DROPOUT RATE The proportion of the children entering the first grade of primary school who do not successfully complete that level in due course.

DEFENSE EXPENDITURE All expenditure, whether by defense or other departments, on the maintenance of military forces, including the purchase of military supplies and equipment, construction, recruitment, training and military aid programs.

EDUCATION EXPENDITURES Expenditures on the provision, management, inspection and support of preprimary, primary and secondary schools; universities and colleges; vocational, technical and other training institutions; and general administration and subsidiary services.

FERTILITY RATE TOTAL The average number of children that would be born alive to a woman during her lifetime, if she were to bear children at each age in accord with prevailing age-specific fertility rates.

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) The total output of goods and services for final use produced by an economy, by both residents and nonresidents, regardless of the allocation to domestic and foreign claims. It does not include deductions for depreciation of physical capital or depletion and degradation of natural resources.

GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT (GNP) Comprises GDP plus net factor income from abroad, which is the income residents receive from abroad for factor services (labor and capital), less similar payments made to nonresidents who contribute to the domestic economy.

GNP PER CAPITA AND GROWTH RATES The gross national product divided by the population. Annual GNPs per capita are expressed in current U. S. dollars. GNP per capita growth rates are annual average growth rates that have been computed by fitting trend lines to the logarithmic values of GNP per capita at constant market prices for each year of the time period.

HEALTH EXPENDITURE Public expenditure on health comprises the expenditure. Both current and capital, by all government offices. Departments, establishments and other bodies that are agencies or instruments of the central authority of a country on hospitals, clinics and maternity and dental centers with a major medical component on national health and medical insurance schemes; and on family planning and preventive care. The data on heath expenditure are not comparable across countries. In many economies private health services are substantial; in others public services represent the major component of total expenditure but may be financed by lower levels of government. Caution should therefore by exercised in using the data for cross-country comparisons.

HEALTH SERVICES ACCESS The percentage of the population that can reach appropriate local health services on foot or by local means of transport in no more than one hour.

HUMAN PRIORITY AREAS Basic education, primary health care, safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, family planning and nutrition.

IMMUNIZED The average of the vaccination coverage's of children under one year of age for the four antigens used in the Universal Child Immunization Program. (UCI.)

INFANT MORTALITY RATE The annual number of deaths of infants under one year of age per 1,000 live births. More specifically, the probability of dying between birth and exactly one year of age times 1,000.
LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES A group of developing countries established by the United Nations General Assembly. Most of these countries suffer from one or more of the following constraints: GNP per capita of around $300 or less, landlocked remote insularity, desertification and exposure to natural disasters.

LIFE EXPECTANCY AT BIRTH The number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of birth were to stay the same throughout the child's life.

LITERACY RATE (ADULT) The percentage of people aged 15 and above who can, with understanding both read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life.

LOW BIRTH WEIGHT The percentage of babies born weighing less than 2,500 grams.

MATERNAL MORTALITY RATE The annual number of deaths of women from pregnancy-related causes per 100,000 live births. According to the Tenth International Classification of Diseases, a maternal death is defined as the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and the site of the pregnancy, from any causes related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management, but not from accidental or incidental causes. This complicated definition and the relative infrequency of maternal deaths in a short period (such as one to two years), except in very large population samples, led to misclassification and underreporting in many countries. To address this problem, the World health Organization and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) developed a new set of estimated for 1990 that adjusted available data for underreporting and misclassification and included a model to predict values for countries with no reliable national data. These estimates should be seen as a recalculation of the previous (1991) revision rather than as indicative of trends since then. They cannot be used to monitor trends on a year-to-year basis, but provide a baseline estimate against which it will be possible to assess progress by 2003.

MILITARY EXPENDITURES Expenditures, whether by defense or other departments, on the maintenance of military forces, including the purchase of military supplies and equipment, construction, recruiting, training and military aid programs.

ORAL REHYDRATION THERAPY USE RATE The percentage of all cases of diarrhea in children under age five treated with oral rehydration salts or an appropriate household solution.

POPULATION GROWTH RATES The annual growth rate of the population calculated from midyear.

POVERTY LINE That income level below which a minimum nutritionally adequate diet plus essential nonfood requirements are not affordable.
PRIMARY EDUCATION Education at the first level (International Standard Classification of ISCIED1), the main function of which is to provide the basic element of education, such as elementary schools.

PURCHASING POWER PARITY (PPP$) The purchasing power of a country's currency: the number of units of that currency required to purchase the same representative basket of goods and services (or a similar basket of goods and services) that a US dollar (the reference currency) would buy in the United States. Purchasing power parity could also be expressed in other national currencies or in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs).

REAL GDP PER CAPITA The use of official exchange rates to convert the national currency figures to US dollars does not attempt to measure the relative domestic purchasing powers of currencies. The United Nations International Comparison Project (ICP) has developed measures of real GDP on an internationally comparable scale using purchasing power parities (PPP), instead of exchange rates, as conversion factors, and expressed international dollars.

RURAL POPULATION The percentage of the population living in rural areas as defined according to the national definition used in the most recent population census.

SAFE WATER ACCESS The percentage of the population with reasonable access to safe water or untreated but uncontaminated water such as that from springs, sanitary wells and protected bore holes.

SANITATION ACCESS The percentage of the population with reasonable access to sanitary means of excreta and waste disposal, including outdoor latrines and composting.

SECONDARY EDUCATION Education at the second level (International Standard Classification-ISCED-levels 2 and 3), based on at least four years of previous instruction at the first level and providing general or specialized instruction or both, such as middle school, secondary school, high school, teacher training school at this level and vocational or technical school.

STUNTING The percentage of children, between 24 to 59 months, below minus two standard deviations from the median height-for-age of the reference population.

TERTIARY EDUCATION Education at the third level (ISCED levels 5,6,7) -- such as universities, teachers' colleges and higher professional schools -- requiring as a minimum condition of admission, the successful completion of education at the second level or evidence of the attainment of an equivalent level of knowledge.

TOTAL EXTERNAL DEBT The sum of public, publicly guaranteed and private non-guaranteed long-term external obligation, short-term debt and use of IMF credit. The data on debt are from the World Bank's Debtor Reporting System, supplemented by World Bank estimates. The system is concerned solely with developing economies and does not collect data on external debt for other groups of borrowers of from economies that are not members of the World Bank. Dollar figures for debt are in US dollars converted at official exchange rates.

UNDERWEIGHT (MODERATE AND SEVERE CHILD MALNUTRITION) The percentage of children, under the age of five, below minus two standard deviations from the median weight-for-age of the reference population.

UNDER-FIVE MORTALITY RATE The annual number of deaths of children under age five per 1,000 live births averaged over the previous five years. More specifically, the probability of dying between birth and exactly five years of age expressed per 1,000 live births.

URBAN POPULATION Percentage of the population living in urban areas as defined according to the national definition used in the most recent population census.

WASTING The percentage of children, between 12 and 23 months, below minus two standard deviations from the median weight-for-height of the reference population.

Date/Time Last Modified: 6/17/2002 4:31:57 PM

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