Human Development Index 2026: Country Rankings

The Human Development Index (HDI), created by UNDP in 1990, combines three dimensions on a 0 to 1 scale: life expectancy at birth, years of schooling, and gross national income per capita. Above 0.800 is "very high human development", 0.700-0.800 is "high", 0.550-0.700 is "medium", below 0.550 is "low". It's the most widely-cited alternative to GDP alone.

In our set, 🇨🇭 Switzerland leads at 0.970 and 🇮🇳 India trails at 0.685. HDI overlaps partially with NLV's inputs (life expectancy is in the QoL pillar, income is in Economic Power) — but it's a useful cross-reference. A country can have mediocre NLV at $75K (high tax, expensive) but very high HDI (long lives, good schools, strong public goods), which tells a different story.

Source: UNDP Human Development Report via OWID. 194 countries covered, annual updates since 1990 — longest running composite country development metric.