Press release 27/03/2024

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX. 2023

The Basque Country occupied 18th place in the global HDI ranking 2023

The Basque Country’s HDI improved last year and recovered its pre-Covid-19 pandemic level

The Basque Country, with a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.936, was at the level of 18th place in the ranking of countries, according to Eustat data applying the methodology of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published in its latest report for 2023/2024.

This report, published by the UNDP on 13 March 2024 with data from 2022, established a global ranking of 193 countries according to their level of well-being. The index is comprised of indicators corresponding to three dimensions of well-being: the dimension of health (measured based on life expectancy at birth), the dimension of education (according to the expected years of schooling of the school-age population and the average years of schooling of adults) and the dimension of standard of living (obtained from the gross national income per capita).

The HDI of the Basque Country remains at the level of the most developed countries on the planet, just above Canada. Spain came 27th in the UNDP report, with an HDI of 0.911. Somalia came last in the ranking with 0.380. The global HDI is 0.739.

The UNDP highlights that the global HDI has recovered after the decline caused by the pandemic, with this recovery being uneven for the countries situated at the upper and lower ends of the HDI.

While countries that are members of the OECD have already recovered their HDI of 2019, half of the least developed countries are below the level they were at in 2019. After 20 years in which the gap between countries was closing, the trend has changed, and the disparity between countries with a very high HDI and a very low HDI has been increasing year after year since 2020.

Following the trend of more developed countries, the HDI of the Basque Country has recovered after the decline experienced in the years 2020 and 2021, in which the HDI went from 0.936 in 2019, to 0.930 in 2020, and 0.934 in 2021. The cause of this decline was the reduction in both the life expectancy and the gross income per capita. The education indicators have improved progressively since 2010.

In 2022 the HDI reached the same value as in 2019, above all thanks to the increase in the gross income per capita ($55,819), which is now higher than the value from 2019 ($55,786), the year before the pandemic. Life expectancy decreased in 2022, and stood at 83.4 years, below the 83.8 years of life expectancy reached in 2019.

From a broader time perspective, during the period 2010-2022, all the components of the HDI improved in the Basque Country. Life expectancy has increased by a whole year, and has gone from 82.4 to 83.4 years. In 2022 it was in 13th place in the ranking of countries, of which Japan was the leader, with 84.8 years.

As for the indicator expected years of schooling, only 11 countries had reached a higher value than the Basque Country, with 18.6 years. The country with the best indicator was Australia, with 21.1 years of expected schooling.

With regards to the average years of schooling, the Basque Country is beaten by 52 countries, although it rose from 10.2 to 11.4 years in the period 2010-2022. The country at the top of the ranking is Germany, with an average of 14.3 years of schooling.

The gross national income per capita of the Basque Country increased between 2010 and 2022 from 49,585 to 55,819 US dollars, measured in terms of Purchasing Power Parity of the year 2017. The ranking was headed by Liechtenstein with $146,673, followed by Qatar, Singapore and Ireland, with incomes of between $85,000 and $100,000 per capita. In total, 17 countries had an income higher than the Basque Country measured in these terms.

Methodological information:

Human Development Index. Methodological note

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel.: 945 01 75 62