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Technical Note - ATechnical Note - AMethodology forcomputation of indices inthe HDRThe Human Development Index(HDI)The HDI is a summary measure of humandevelopment. It measures the averageachievements in a country in three basicdimensions of human development:l A long and healthy life, as measuredby life expectancy at birth.l Knowledge, as measured by the adultliteracy rate (with two-thirds weight)and the combined primary,secondary and tertiary grossenrolment ratio (with one-thirdweight).l A decent standard of living, asmeasured by gross domestic product(GDP) per capita (PPP US$).Before the HDI itself is calculated, anindex needs to be created for each of thesedimensions. To calculate thesedimensions indices—the life expectancy,education and GDP indices—minimumand maximum values (goalposts) arechosen for each underlying indicator.Performance in each dimension isexpressed as a value between 0 and 1 byapplying the general formula:actual value – minimum valueDimension index =maximum value – minimum valueThe HDI is then calculated as a simpleaverage of the dimension indices. Thegoalposts are as under:Goalposts for calculating the HDIIndicator Maximum Minimumvalue valueLife expectancy 85 25at birth (years)Adult literacy 100 0rate (%)Combined gross 100 0enrolmentratio (%)GDP per capita 40,000 100(PPP US$)The Gender-related DevelopmentIndex (GDI)While the HDI measures averageachievement, the GDI adjusts the averageachievement to reflect the inequalitiesbetween men and women in the followingdimensions:l A long and healthy life, as measuredby life expectancy at birth.l Knowledge as measured by the adultliteracy rate and the combinedprimary, secondary and tertiary grossenrolment ratio.l A decent standard of living, asmeasured by estimated earned income(PPP US$).The calculation of the GDI involves threesteps. First, female and male indices ineach dimension are calculated accordingto this general formula:Dimension index =actual value – minimum valuemaximum value – minimum valueRegional Human Development Report164 HIV/AIDS and Development in South Asia 2003