What countries offer best and worst living standards?

KARACHI: Pakistan continues to perform dismally on the development front, becoming one of the only two South Asian countries in the low human development category in the Human Development Index (HDI) published by the UN. This is highlighted in a report by The Economist, titled ‘Which countries have the best, and worst, living standards?’, which looks at the living standards provided by various countries.

The HDI, originally released by the UNDP, ranks Pakistan in the 164th position on a list of 193 countries, with a score of 0.54 (1 being the most developed). Life expectancy at birth in the country is 66.4 years; expected and mean years of schooling are 7.9 and 4.4 years respectively. The average HDI score in South Asia is 0.641. Iran and Sri Lanka have the highest score (0.780) in South Asia and the 78th rank, and Afghanistan has the lowest (0.462).

According to The Economist, the tumultuous start of the 2020s created a downward shift in the human development path across the world with the weakest and poorest countries being left behind.

The report suggests that the impact of “unprecedented” events like a global pandemic, a war in Europe, and extreme weather incidents has now become visible. The toll these events have had on global standards of living is now apparent – as seen in the UN’s HDI, which measures a country’s development “in terms of societal outcomes, including life expectancy at birth, expected and average years of schooling and gross national income per person”.

Switzerland tops the chart with a 0.967 score, enjoying the first spot. Norway and Iceland come second and third with scores of 0.966 and 0.959 respectively. Hong Kong is the only Asian country to be in the Top 5; it is in the fourth position with a score of 0.956; Denmark has a score of 0.952. The Top 10 slots are occupied by mostly European countries with one exception; Singapore is the other Asian country, enjoying the ninth position with a score of 0.949.

In 2020, the year of the pandemic, the HDI fell for the first time since its launch in 1990. It fell again in 2021. This year, the HDI has shown some improvements; the UN’s Human Development Index was published last Wednesday (March 13). However, the report suggests that, while the HDI is rising, the progress so far has been inconsistent and uneven.

The Economist further highlights the setbacks that global development has faced over the years: a full-scale war in Europe and the subsequent price hikes and extreme weather events. The upward trajectory that the development was enjoying had a precipitous fall in 2020. And while the index has risen again and is all set to meet its pre-2019 trends, most countries have been left behind. The Economist says: “Countries such as Peru, Colombia, Libya and Lebanon have made little progress since 2019. Living standards in Ukraine and Russia have also dropped: the countries fell by 23 and four places respectively between 2021 and 2022. War-torn Yemen, poor and indebted Belize, and Micronesia, an island country at risk of being swallowed by rising sea levels, all peaked in 2010 and have declined every year since.” It also highlights that while regional projections for the year 2023 show an increase in countries’ scores, the Arab world will not have returned to its pre-2019 scores.

The publication adds: “Across the OECD, a club of rich countries, HDI values have recovered to or surpassed pre-pandemic levels. But that is true for less than half of the world’s least-developed countries. For 20 years the gap between countries with the highest and lowest HDI values had narrowed (except for a brief period around the financial crash of 2007-09). But since 2020 it has widened.”

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on March 13, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that “[The UNDP] report makes clear: polarisation, inequalities and distrust are keeping us on the brink of disaster. We can do better. We must break the geopolitical gridlock and act for our shared future. We need a new social contract, built on dialogue, empathy, cooperation and rights for all.”

The Economist in its report also calls for collective action to tackle the prevailing challenges. It makes the case for collective efforts by saying: “The chaos of the 2020s has also shown that governments can collaborate on some big issues. During the pandemic, vaccines were developed, produced and distributed at remarkable speed, saving an estimated 20 million lives in their first year alone. At COP28 last year the world proved that it could agree on a deal to tackle climate change (even if fulfilling it is another matter). More of that will be needed to overcome the setbacks from the start of the decade.”