List of countries in Asia and Oceania by Human Development Index explained

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. Countries fall into four broad categories based on their HDI: very high, high, medium, and low human development. Currently, no Oceanian country falls into the low human development category while Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen are the only Asian countries which fall into this category.

The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq^[1] and Indian economist Amartya Sen.^[2]

The table below presents the latest Human Development Index (HDI)^[3] for countries in Asia and the Pacific as included in a Development report of united nations development programme released on 13 March 2024 and based on data collected in 2022.^[4]

Countries with contiguous boundaries that are partially (but not entirely) located in Asia are shown here in italics, but HDI figures are given for the whole country. Macau, North Korea, and Taiwan in Asia, are not ranked as they are not included in the latest report by the United Nations Development Programme.

List of countries in Asia and Oceania by Human Development Index
Rank		Nation	Human Development Index (HDI)
Region	World		HDI 2022	HDI 2021	Change in HDI Value (2021-2022)
Very High Human Development
1	4	Hong Kong^[5]	0.956	0.959	0.003
2	9	Singapore	0.949	0.942	0.007
3	12	Australia	0.946	0.949	0.003
4	16	New Zealand	0.939	0.936	0.003
5	19	United Arab Emirates	0.937	0.931	0.006
5	19		0.929	0.926	0.003
6	24	Japan	0.920	0.920
7	25	Israel	0.915	0.911	0.004
8	29	Cyprus^[6]	0.907	0.901	0.006
9	34	Bahrain	0.888	0.884	0.004
10	40	Qatar	0.875	0.864	0.011
10	40	Saudi Arabia	0.875	0.867	0.008
11	45	Turkey^[7]	0.855	0.841	0.014
12	49	Kuwait	0.849	0.838	0.011
13	55		0.823	0.824	0.001
14	56	^[8]	0.821	0.818	0.003
15	59	Oman	0.819	0.810	0.009
16	60	Georgia^[9]	0.814	0.809	0.005
17	63	Malaysia	0.807	0.798	0.009
18	66	Thailand	0.803	0.797	0.006
19	67	Kazakhstan^[10]	0.802	0.801	0.001
High Human Development
20	71	Palau	0.797	0.802	0.005
21	75	China^[11]	0.788	0.785	0.003
22	76	Armenia^[12]	0.786	0.774	0.012
23	80		0.780	0.776	0.004
23	80	Sri Lanka	0.780	0.783	0.003
25	87	Maldives	0.762	0.753	0.009
26	89	Azerbaijan^[13]	0.760	0.738	0.022
27	94	Turkmenistan	0.744	0.740	0.004
28	96	Mongolia	0.741	0.730	0.011
29	98	Tonga	0.739	0.738	0.001
30	99	Jordan	0.736	0.736
31	102	Marshall Islands	0.731	0.729	0.002
32	104	Fiji	0.729	0.715	0.014
33	105	Egypt^[14]	0.728	0.726	0.002
34	106	Uzbekistan	0.727	0.721	0.006
35	107		0.726	0.718	0.008
36	109	Lebanon	0.723	0.725	0.002
37	111		0.716	0.715	0.001
38	112	Indonesia^[15]	0.713	0.707	0.006
39	113	Philippines	0.710	0.692	0.018
40	116	Samoa	0.702	0.708	0.006
41	117	Kyrgyzstan	0.701	0.696	0.005
Medium Human Development
42	122	Nauru	0.696	0.693	0.003
43	125	Bhutan	0.681	0.677	0.004
44	126	Tajikistan	0.679	0.677	0.002
45	128	Iraq	0.673	0.667	0.006
46	129	Bangladesh	0.670	0.662	0.008
47	131	Tuvalu	0.653	0.653
48	134	India	0.644	0.633	0.011
49	135		0.634	0.634
50	137	Kiribati	0.628	0.627	0.001
51	139		0.620	0.615	0.005
52	140	Vanuatu	0.614	0.614
53	144	Myanmar	0.608	0.599	0.009
54	146	Nepal	0.601	0.591	0.010
55	148	Cambodia	0.600	0.596	0.004
56	154	Papua New Guinea	0.568	0.564	0.004
57	155		0.566	0.574	0.008
58	156	Solomon Islands	0.562	0.564	0.002
59	157		0.557	0.558	0.001
Low Human Development
60	164	Pakistan	0.540	0.537	0.003
61	182	Afghanistan	0.462	0.473	0.011
62	186	Yemen	0.424	0.425	0.001

See also

• Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
• List of Asian and Pacific countries by GDP (PPP)
• List of Asian countries by GDP
• List of Asian countries by population
• List of countries by Human Development Index
• List of countries by Human Development Index by region
• List of countries by industrial production growth rate
• List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty

Notes and References

1. Web site: History of the Human Development Report . 26 March 2009 . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090403071425/http://hdr.undp.org/en/humandev/reports/ . 3 April 2009 .
2. Web site: The Human Development concept. UNDP. 29 July 2011. 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20120415134936/http://hdr.undp.org/en/humandev/. 15 April 2012. dead.
3. Web site: Table 1: Human Development Index and its components.
4. Web site: Human Development Report 2023. https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/country-insights#/ranks. 13 March 2024. 22 May 2024. Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme.
5. Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China.
6. Cyprus is geographically a part of Western Asia (or the Middle East), though politically and culturally it is often considered as being a part of Europe.
7. A portion of Turkey, known as East Thrace, is a part of Europe, making up about 3% of the country's land area and 14% of its population.
8. Russia is geographically a transcontinental country, though culturally and politically it is often considered as being a part of Europe. Asian Russia consists of over 75% of the country's territory, but only 22% of its population.
9. The municipality of Kazbegi is located in Europe, which makes up about 0.1% of Georgia's population.
10. Two regions of Kazakhstan, namely Atyrau and West Kazakhstan, are partly located in Europe.
11. Data for China are calculated for mainland China only, excluding Taiwan and the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao.
12. Armenia is geographically a part of Western Asia (or the Middle East), though culturally and politically it is often considered as being a part of Europe.
13. The districts of Khachmaz, Quba, Qusar, Shabran, and Siazan are geographically in Europe, placing about 5% of Azerbaijan's population in Europe.
14. The portion of Egypt located in Asia is the Sinai Region, comprising about 6% of the country's landmass. However, the country is politically a part of Africa.
15. The Aru Islands and Western New Guinea are geographically in Oceania, comprising approx. 22% of Indonesia's landmass and 2% of its population. However, the country is politically a part of Asia.