The A.C. of the Basque Country maintains the third position in the ranking of the Human Development Index (HDI), behind Iceland, which holds the first position, and Norway, according to Eustat data. Australia, Canada, Sweden and Ireland occupy the following positions. Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso and Guinea-Bissau come at the bottom of the world ranking, with the first two under half the world HDI average -0.743.

The Human Development Index, defined and calculated for 178 countries by the Office for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is designed as a synoptic measurement of the achievements of a country in three basic dimensions: A long and healthy life, -measured by life expectancy at birth-, a high level of knowledge –measured by the combined gross school enrolment rate and by the adult literacy rate- and a decent standard of living –per capita GDP-. To have information available on a high number of countries information is used for the indicators of the 2005 index.

Despite being located at the same position as in 2006, the A.C. of the Basque Country shows improvements on two of the indicators used by the index as regards the previous year: there was an increase of US$2,830 in per capita GDP and 7 tenths in the gross school enrolment rates of primary, secondary and university education. This rate accounted for 98.4% of the population within school age.

Life expectancy at birth remained steady at 80.8, and it should be remembered that only Japan, with 82.3, Hong Kong with 81.9, Iceland with 81.5, Switzerland with 81.3 and Australia with 80.9, bettered the Basque average. The adult literacy rate was considered to be very close to 100%, and so leaves little possibility for significant improvement.

Álava continues to be the province with the highest HDI, followed by Gipuzkoa, with Bizkaia staying below the average for the A.C. of the Basque Country

Álava achieved at rating of 0.975, based on a per capita GDP which was 19% higher than the overall rate of the Basque Autonomous Community and a combined gross school enrolment rate of 100%.

Gipuzkoa, with 0.967 points, had a per capita GDP US$306 higher than the Community average (34,026). This province had a school enrolment rate of 99.3% and the highest life expectancy at birth, with 81.2.

Bizkaia achieved 0.958 points, with a per capita GDP almost 6% lower than the Community average and a gross school enrolment rate of 97.3%, 1.1 percentage points lower than the A.C. of the Basque Country as a whole.

In the last 5 years the Human Development Index has grown by 2.5% in the A.C. of the Basque Country

World growth of the HDI from 2003 to 2007 was 2.9% and 1.2% for OECD countries. Spain achieved positive evolution of 3.4%.

Álava showed 2.9% growth, Gipuzkoa 2.6% and Bizkaia 2.3%.

Human development index 2007. Ranking.

Source: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Eustat

Data tables:

www.eustat.eus/indic/indicadores.aspx?idioma=i&indictipo=2&ambito=99&temaseleccionado=48

Report on Human Development 2007:

hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008/chapters/