education provision and living standards. The index ranges from 0 to 1 and the categories are: very high, high, medium and low (Table 26.3). The HDI ranking shows a close correlation between low index levels and areas of the world with growing populations. It suggests such growth has a negative impact on human development. In many developing countries, rapid population growth presents many challenges and some opportunities.
26 Population and Human Development Category
HDI
Very high High
Medium Low
0.8–0.999 0.7–0.799 0.6–0.699 0.1–0.599
Table 26.3 Human Development Index categories.
Key
Very high High
Medium Low
Data unavailable Fig. 26.23 Map of the world showing categories of Human Development Index (2013 data). CHECK YOUR LEARNING
Study Figure 26.23 and answer the following questions: 1. Name three countries from each of the HDI categories. 2. What data is used to compile this index? 3. List two reasons why many African countries are in the low category of this index. 4. Name one country in the very high category and one in the low.
HDI rank
1 4
74
113 157 187
Country
Norway Ireland Mexico
Philippines Nigeria
HDI index
0.953 0.938 0.774 0.699 0.532
South Sudan 0.388
Life expectancy at birth
82.3 81.6 77.3 69.2 53.9 57.3
Expected years of schooling
17.9 19.6 14.0 12.6 10.0 4.9
Table 26.4 HDI ranking and data for selected countries (UN, 2018). CHECK YOUR LEARNING
Study Table 26.4 and answer the following questions: 1. List three differences between Ireland and South Sudan. 2. Explain two reasons for any one difference.
455
Per capita income (US$)
68,012 53,754 16,944 9,154 5,231 963
SKILLS ACTIVITY
Draw a suitable graph to illustrate the HDI index for the countries shown in Table 26.4.
