List of Japanese prefectures by Human Development Index explained

This article presents a list of Japanese regions by Human Development Index as of 2021. This article also includes a list of Japanese prefectures by historical HDI in 1990, 1995 and 2000 further below.

Japanese regions by HDI (2021)

This is a list regions of Japan by Human Development Index calculated using the new methodology.^[1]

Rank	Region	HDI (2021)
Very high human development
1	Southern Kantō (Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Yamanashi, Nagano)	0.951
2	Kansai (Shiga, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo, Nara, Wakayama)	0.928
–	Japan	0.925
3	Tōkai (Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi, Mie)	0.924
4	Chūgoku (Tottori, Shimane, Okayama, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi)	0.921
5	Northern Kantō, Koshin (Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma)	0.913
6	Hokuriku (Niigata, Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui)	0.908
7	Shikoku (Tokushima, Kagawa, Ehime, Kōchi)	0.905
	Kyushu (Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Ōita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Okinawa)
9		0.900
10	Tōhoku (Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Akita, Yamagata, Fukushima)	0.893

Japanese prefectures by past HDI using old methodology

This is a list of Japanese prefectures by Human Development Index calculated using the old methodology. This data was taken from the 2007 paper "Gross National Happiness and Material Welfare in Bhutan and Japan" (Tashi Choden, Takayoshi Kusago, Kokoro Shirai, Centre for Bhutan Studies, Osaka University).

Rank	Prefecture	HDI (1990)	HDI (1995)	HDI (2000)
1		0.9296	0.9448	0.9667
2		0.9115	0.9265	0.9460
3		0.9080	0.9229	0.9426
4		0.9056	0.9204	0.9402
5		0.9027	0.9204	0.9401
6		0.9031	0.9205	0.9392
7		0.9003	0.9177	0.9390
8		0.8980	0.9148	0.9365
9		0.8991	0.9163	0.9364
10		0.9032	0.9170	0.9361
11		0.8952	0.9123	0.9333
12		0.8934	0.9123	0.9329
13		0.8996	0.9119	0.9324
14		0.8944	0.9094	0.9319
15		0.8992	0.9152	0.9316
16		0.8945	0.9122	0.9304
17		0.8957	0.9117	0.9303
18		0.8955	0.9107	0.9294
19		0.8921	0.9095	0.9290
20		0.8950	0.9086	0.9290
21		0.8891	0.9076	0.9285
22		0.8921	0.9070	0.9263
23		0.8863	0.9068	0.9260
24		0.8928	0.9080	0.9259
25		0.8924	0.9084	0.9258
26		0.8926	0.9071	0.9247
27		0.8880	0.9044	0.9241
28		0.8887	0.9045	0.9239
29		0.8858	0.9021	0.9231
30		0.8896	0.9061	0.9228
31		0.8872	0.9045	0.9225
32		0.8862	0.9047	0.9221
33		0.8868	0.9019	0.9219
34		0.8855	0.9014	0.9216
35		0.8810	0.9021	0.9189
36		0.8792	0.8998	0.9186
37		0.8831	0.9005	0.9182
38		0.8794	0.8944	0.9169
39		0.8811	0.8956	0.9166
40		0.8781	0.8964	0.9156
41		0.8770	0.8957	0.9155
42		0.8780	0.8959	0.9148
43		0.8777	0.8951	0.9142
44		0.8749	0.8949	0.9127
45		0.8762	0.8938	0.9127
46		0.8810	0.8940	0.9111
47		0.8698	0.8877	0.9065

References

1. Web site: Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab. hdi.globaldatalab.org. en.

• Gross National Happiness and Material Welfare in Bhutan and Japan