Press Release 21/07/2016
The Basque Country has achieved one of the highest Human Development Index scores in the world
It has risen two places since 2010, and is now in eighth place in a list of all countries according to the Human Development Index (HDI) ranking
The Human Development Index (HDI) for the Basque Country situates Basque society amongst the most developed societies on the planet according to data prepared by Eustat, which calculated the Basque Country's HDI for the period of 2010-2014 using the methodology of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The most recent report published by the UNDP, containing data referring to 2014, established a global ranking of 188 countries by living conditions. The study allocated a HDI to each country (on a scale of 0 to 1) according to life expectancy at birth, expected years of schooling for children at school age, mean years of schooling for adults aged 25 or above and lastly Gross National Income per capita.
With an HDI of 0.915 in 2014, the Basque Country came eighth in the world, coming only behind Norway, Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland, and in joint position with the United States. Spain came 26th in the UN report with an HDI of 0.876. Niger came last in the ranking with an HDI of 0.348.
Between 2010 and 2014, the Basque Country rose from tenth position, which it occupied in 2010, to eighth position in 2014, overtaking the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Between 2010 and 2014, the Basque Country improved in the areas of health and education, and it saw its life expectancy increase from 82.6 to 83.4, the latter figure only being exceeded by Hong Kong (84.0) and Japan (83.5).
Likewise, expected years of schooling also increased from 18.1 to 18.8 years, putting the Basque Country solely behind Australia (20.2), New Zealand (19.2) and Iceland (19.0).
The figure for the mean years of schooling also increased in the same period, going from 10.2 to 10.8 years. However, the Basque Country was behind countries such as Germany and the United Kingdom, for which the mean was 13.1 years.
The Basque Country actually saw GNI per capita fall in this period to 42,100 US dollars last year, as measured in terms of purchasing power parity, putting it a long way behind the HDI leader, Norway, which had a GNI per capita of 65,000 US dollars.
For further information:
Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Instituto Vasco de Estadística
C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz
Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.eus Tlf: 945 01 75 62