(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) – Sri Lanka has progressively improved in human development over the years and is ranked 71 out of 189 countries in the Human Development Report 2019 released Monday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
According to the report titled “Beyond income, beyond averages, beyond today: Inequalities in human development in the 21st century”, Sri Lanka’s Human Development Index (HDI) has progressively increased up to 0.780 in 2018 from 0.625 in 1990 in a scale ranging between 0-1.
The country is ranked in the High Human Development category in the index that is a composite national measure of health, education, and income for 189 countries.
According to the HDI 2019 report, Sri Lanka’s average life expectancy at birth is 76.8 years. Sri Lanka�s mean years of schooling is 11.1 year while expected years of schooling is 14 years.
Compared to Sri Lanka, other South Asian countries are in the Medium Human Development or Low Human Development categories. Sri Lanka’s South Asian neighbor, India has been ranked at 129, Bhutan at 134, Bangladesh at 135, Nepal at 147, Pakistan at 152, and Afghanistan at 170 in the 2019 index.
Norway, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Hong Kong in order, ranked at the top five of the HDI while Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Mali Burundi, respectively were in the bottom.
The report which focuses on the inequalities in human development in the 21st century warned that climate change and technological changes are increasing inequality around the world and could contribute to civil unrest, especially in developing countries.
