development report 2012 - UMAR

188 Development Report 2012
Indicators of Slovenia’s development
Human Development
Index
In the 2011 UN Human Development Report,
Slovenia remains in the group of countries with very
high human development. 1 Despite methodological
changes, 2 the Human Development Index totalled
0.884 in 2011. Slovenia is thus placed 21 st among
187 countries, which is the same position as in 2010, 3
when its HDI was 0.882 and Slovenia was 21 st among
169 countries. The highest HDI value was recorded
for Norway (0.943). Slovenia’s ranking is improving
gradually (in 2010 also due to methodological
changes).
As one of the main composite indicators of social
well-being and development, the HDI measures three
dimensions of human welfare: health, education and
income. Slovenia’s relatively high position is mainly
attributable to the education dimension, as Slovenia
is placed relatively high (4 th ) on the indicators of
expected years of schooling (a child of school-entrance
age can expect to receive 16.9 years of schooling,
compared with 16.7 years in 2010) and average years
of schooling of adults (14 th ) (in Slovenia, mean years
of schooling of the population aged 25 and older was
11.6, in comparison with 11.5 4 in 2010). In terms of
life expectancy, one of the health indicators, Slovenia
ranks 30 th (according to UNDP data, life expectancy at
birth in Slovenia totalled 79.3 years in 2011; in 2010:
78.8 years). According to the income indicator, Slovenia
is 31 st (gross national income per capita in purchasing
power parity US$ terms totalled 24,914 in Slovenia in
2011; in 2010: 25,857 US dollars.
1
According to the report, countries with very high human
development are those with HDI values from 0.943 to 0.793.
Countries with HDI values from 0.783 to 0.698 are classified
as countries with high human development, while countries
with medium and low human development are those with HDI
values from 0.510 to 0.286.
2
In the previous year, the Human Development Index underwent
a series of methodological changes. In the report, the new
methodology was retroactively applied to calculate the HDI
at five-year intervals for 1980–2011. The index captures three
dimensions of well-being: health, education and income. Health is
still measured by life expectancy at birth, while education is now
monitored by the average years of schooling of the population
aged 25 and older and the expected years of schooling for a
child of school-entrance age. To measure population’s income,
the report uses gross national income per capita in purchasing
power parity US$ terms. For more see Slovenian Economic Mirror
(IMAD), November 2010, pp. 28–30.
3
The 2010 Report actually ranked Slovenia 29th (the index
value of 0.828), but this was a result of a mistake by the Unesco
Institute for Statistics in calculating the average years of
schooling. The mistake (pointed out by IMAD and SORS) was
corrected the following year (also retroactively).
4
A Slovenian estimate. See the previous note.
The Development Report 2011 emphasises once
more that economic growth does not necessarily
translate into social and environmental wellbeing,
and pursues last year’s commitment to
broader, more encompassing well-being indicators.
Therefore, it also includes indicators of life satisfaction,
satisfaction with government measures to reduce
emissions, satisfaction with actions to preserve the
environment and satisfaction with air and water
quality. The report also comprises the three new
indices that were introduced experimentally last year:
IHDI (the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development
Index), MPI (the Multidimensional Poverty Index) and
GII (the Gender Inequality Index). The HDI equals the
IHDI when there is no inequality among people. As
the HDI shows the potential human development
that could be achieved if there were no inequality in
a country, the IHDI can be viewed as an index of the
actual level of human development (accounting for
the inequality). In 2011, the Slovenian IHDI was 0.837,
5.3% lower than the HDI. In the group of countries
with high human development, only the Czech
Republic scored better than Slovenia according to this
indicator, by a margin of 5.0%. The Multidimensional
Poverty Index (MPI) 5 captures the incidence of
multidimensional deprivation, i.e. the proportion
of the population deprived in at least three of ten
deprivation items, and the intensity of deprivation, i.e.
the average number of items in which poor people are
deprived. However, this index is highly problematic
as regards data. The index was calculated only for 12
of 47 highly developed countries, based on data for
2003. The MPI for Slovenia is an estimate, totalling 0%
on all indicators, except the risk of poverty, which is
estimated at 0.4%. The Slovenian Gender Inequality
Indicator (GII) 6 is 0.175, ranking Slovenia 18 th among
187 countries, which is almost the same position as in
2010 (17 th out of 138 countries included in the survey).
The top position in terms of the GII is held by Sweden,
followed by the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland
and Finland. Slovenia is ranked lowest particularly on
the indicator of political representation of women,
but this changed after the election in December
2011, when the share of women in the Slovenian
parliament increased from 10.8% to 32.2%. Slovenia
is thus approaching the countries with high levels of
female representation in the parliament (the average
in Scandinavian countries totals 40%).
5
See also the Material Deprivation indicator.
6
The GII measures women’s reproductive health (the maternal
mortality ratio and fertility rates of adult women), gender
differences in educational attainment (participation in a
secondary and tertiary education) and female and male
participation in political activities and in the labour force (the
share of parliamentary seats and labour force participation
rates). The index ranges between 0 and 1, with higher values
indicating worse achievements.