Human development index - UMAR

162 Development Report 2011
Indicators of Slovenia’s development
Human development
index
In 2010, the Human Development Index (HDI) for
Slovenia was 0.828, which places Slovenia 29 th among
169 countries. The HDI is one of the main composite
indicators of social well-being, measuring three
dimensions of human welfare: health, education and
income. As the index underwent a series of changes
in 2010, the HDI for 2010 is not comparable with the
released values for previous years. 1
Slovenia remains in a group of countries with very high
human development and the values of the included
indicators are also rising gradually. The value of the
health indicator is highest (with life expectancy at birth
being 78.8 years, according to the UNDP) while the value
of the income indicator is the lowest. The composite
index of education comprising mean years of schooling
of the population aged 25 and older and expected years
of schooling is particularly worth mentioning in 2010.
According to the Unesco Institute for Statistics, mean
years of schooling in Slovenia of the population aged 25
and older was only 9 years in 2010. However, we find that
this data for Slovenia is much lower than the Slovenian
estimate. 2 In the EU-27, only Portugal had a lower value
of this indicator (8.0 years) than Slovenia, while the OECD
average was 11.4 years. Expected years of schooling,
another indicator of the education index, shows a
different picture, namely that a child of school-entrance
age can expect to receive 16.7 years of schooling in
Slovenia, on average. Slovenia exceeds the EU average
(15.6 years) and the OECD countries (15.9 years) on this
indicator. Among the analysed 169 countries, the highest
values were recorded in Australia (20.5 years) and New
Zealand (19.7 years). 3
country, totalled 0.771 in 2010, 6.9% less than the value
of the HDI. 4
The distribution of well-being by gender is relatively
favourable in Slovenia. The value of the new Gender
Inequality Index (GII), which measures reproductive
health, gender differences in educational attainment and
participation in politics and in the labour force, 5 totalled
0.293 in 2010 (data from 2008), which ranks Slovenia
17 th among the selected 138 countries. The value of
the Slovenian GII indicates that there are differences
in the distribution of well-being dimensions between
women and men, largely on account of poor political
representation of women. The share of women in the
Slovenian parliament (10% according to the UNDP data
for 2008) is below the global average (16.2%) and even
below the average of countries with the lowest levels of
development (16.6%) and remains significantly lower
than in Scandinavian countries (40.7%), which are in the
lead in this area. As this is one of the key indicators of
equal opportunities in society, rethinking the strategic
measures to reach a proportional representation of
genders in politics is required.
Although there are inequalities in the distribution of
the three basic dimensions of well-being in Slovenia,
they are the lowest among the selected 169 countries.
The value of Slovenia’s Inequality-adjusted Human
Development Index (IHDI), which measures disparities
in the distribution of income, health and education in a
1
Several improvements to the methodology for calculating
the HDI as well as to income and education indicators were
introduced in 2010 (more on this in the Slovenian Economic
Mirror, November 2010, 15(11): 30–31). The HDI according to
the new indicators and the new methodology is calculated for
a period of five years between 1980 and 2010, depending on
availability of data.
2
If the HDI is calculated using IMAD’s estimate of the average
years of schooling (11.5 years), Slovenia’s HDI for 2010 amounts
to 0.862 (IMAD’s calculation), equal to the HDI value in Hong
Kong, which is ranked 21 st among the 169 countries. For details
see the indicator Average years of schooling.
3
As these indicators do not take into account the dropout and
repetition rates and the quality of education, they should be
complemented by other indicators of education and training.
4
The IHDI takes values between 0 and 1; a higher value denotes
lower inequalities in a country. The IHDI should always be
viewed alongside the HDI: When there is no inequality in the
well-being dimensions in a country, the IHDI will be equal to
the HDI; the greater the difference between the two, the greater
the inequality in the distribution of development achievements
across people in society.
5
The GII replaced the Gender-related Development Index
(GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). It ranges
between 0 and 1, but unlike the HDI, higher values of the GII
indicate worse achievements.

Development Report 2011
Indicators of Slovenia’s development
163
Figure: The HDI and its components, Slovenia, 1970–2010
1.0
0.9
HDI
Education index
Income index
Health index
0.8
0.7
0.6
1970
1971
1972
1973
1974
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Source: UNDP Human Development, 2010.
Note: The index is calculated according to the new methodology from 2010 for the whole period based on the indicators from previous years (the income index is thus measured by
GDP per capita in purchasing power parity terms in US dollars, the education index by the literacy rate and gross enrolment ratio at all three levels of education, and the health index
by life expectancy at birth). These values can, therefore, no longer be compared over time.