GCC ranks high on Human Development Report

GCC ranks high on Human Development Report

According to a recent report released by the UN, the Gulf States are doing well in terms of human development, but not too well when it comes to gender equality.

October 7, 2009 4:48 by Aarti Nagraj

The UAE is counted as one of the nations with very high human development, ranking 35 among 182 countries according to the Human Development Report 2009 released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The Human Development Index (HDI) measures human development on three aspects: “Living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity, PPP, income),” says the report.

The report this year takes into account statistics from 2007, and says that between 1980 and 2007, the UAE’s HDI increased from 0.743 to 0.903. The life expectancy in the country at birth is 77.3 years, while the adult literacy rate stands at 90 percent.

Aside from the UAE, the entire GCC region seems to have performed well on the index. Kuwait tops the list for the region, coming at the 31^st place with a HDI rating of 0.916. Qatar follows at 31^st position, with an HDI of 0.910.

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Tags: gcc, gender equality, human development, UAE, UN