The 21st Century climate challenge

Readers guide and notes to tablesHuman development indicatortablesThe human development indicator tables providea global assessment of country achievementsin different areas of human development.The main tables are organized thematically, asdescribed by their titles. The tables include datafor 175 UN member states—those for whichthe human development index (HDI) couldbe calculated—along with Hong Kong SpecialAdministrative Region of China, and the OccupiedPalestinian Territories. Because of insufficientcross-nationally comparable data of goodquality, the HDI has not been calculated for theremaining 17 UN member countries. Instead aset of basic human development indicators forthese countries is presented in Table 1a.In the tables, countries and areas areranked by their HDI value. To locate a countryin the tables, refer to the Key to countries onthe back cover flap where countries with theirHDI ranks are listed alphabetically. Most ofthe data in the tables are for 2005 and arethose available to the Human DevelopmentReport Office (HDRO) as of 1 July 2007, unlessotherwise specified.Sources and definitionsHDRO is primarily a user, not a producer, ofstatistics. It relies on international data agencieswith the mandate, resources and expertise tocollect and compile international data on specificstatistical indicators. Sources for all dataused in compiling the indicator tables are givenin short citations at the end of each table. Thesecorrespond to full references in Statistical references.When an agency provides data that it hascollected from another source, both sources arecredited in the table notes. But when an agencyhas built on the work of many other contributors,only that agency is given as the source.In order to ensure that all calculations can beeasily replicated the source notes also show theoriginal data components used in any calculationsby HDRO. Indicators for which short,meaningful definitions can be given are includedin Definitions of statistical terms. Otherrelevant information appears in the notes at theend of each table. For more detailed technicalinformation about these indicators, please consultthe relevant websites of the source agenciesthrough the Human Development Report websiteat http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/.Inconsistencies between nationaland international estimatesWhen compiling international data series, internationaldata agencies often apply internationalstandards and harmonization procedures to improvecomparability across countries. When internationaldata are based on national statistics,as they usually are, national data may need to beadjusted. When data for a country are missing,an international agency may produce an estimateif other relevant information can be used.And because of the difficulties in coordinationbetween national and international data agencies,international data series may not incorporatethe most recent national data. All these factorscan lead to substantial differences betweennational and international estimates.This Report has often brought such inconsistenciesto light. When data inconsistencieshave arisen, HDRO has helped to link nationaland international data authorities to addressthose inconsistencies. In many cases this has ledto better statistics in the Report. HDRO con-HUMAN DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2007/2008 221