Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Web Hosting Lounge : Human Development Index - measurement of human well being

[unity100]

United nations uses this index to measure development in countries, instead of gdp/gnp.

The reason is, in gdp/gnp, there are no other factors than total wealth generated taken into account. even if that entire wealth belonged to one person, gdp/gnp would reflect similarly. even though it is not possible that to be so, in countries with high income inequality, it gives a wrong idea about the comfort citizens are living in that country.

Instead, u.n. uses HDI. hdi is constructed by measuring a lot of things average individual would care about - availability of education, safety of future, safety of children and so on. full list is as follows :

A long and healthy life: Life expectancy at birth
Education index: Mean years of schooling and Expected years of schooling
A decent standard of living: GNI per capita (PPP US$)
The HDI combined three dimensions up until its 2011 report:
Life expectancy at birth, as an index of population health and longevity
Knowledge and education, as measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting).
Standard of living, as indicated by the natural logarithm of gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity.

HDI, human development index, is measurement of the POTENTIAL standards a country can have. ie, on grounds of what could be achieved. a country, for example, may have great amenities in respect to HDI and great potential, but, it may never achieve it if inequality is high.

enter IHDI - inequality adjusted HDI. inequality adjusted hdi measures the ACTUAL reflection of the wealth of a nation on its average citizens, in reality. here its article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...y-adjusted_HDI

and recent rankings - top of the list is better :

Norway 0.890 ()
Australia 0.856 ()
Sweden 0.851 ( 5)
Netherlands 0.846 ( 1)
Iceland 0.845 ( 5)
Ireland 0.843 ()
Germany 0.842 ()
Denmark 0.842 ( 4)
Switzerland 0.840 ()
Slovenia 0.837 ( 7)
Finland 0.833 ( 7)
Canada 0.829 ( 7)
Czech Republic 0.821 ( 9)
Austria 0.820 ( 1)
Belgium 0.819 ( 1)
France 0.804 ()
Spain 0.799 ( 2)
Luxembourg 0.799 ( 3)
United Kingdom 0.791 ( 4)
Slovakia 0.787 ( 7)
Israel 0.779 ( 8)
Italy 0.779 ( 2)
United States 0.771 ( 19)
Estonia 0.769 ( 2)

[BeZazz]

It was only earlier on today after I read post on Facebook by a friend complaining about Australia.
That I thought to myself, that we have it pretty good over here and I couldn't think of any other country I would rather live (No offence to anyone).

[unity100]

Originally Posted by BeZazz

It was only earlier on today after I read post on Facebook by a friend complaining about Australia.
That I thought to myself, that we have it pretty good over here and I couldn't think of any other country I would rather live (No offence to anyone).

despite IHDI is a very good measure, it is still statistical.

it doesnt take into account stuff like safety, average culture and other things.

[BeZazz]

Originally Posted by unity100

despite IHDI is a very good measure, it is still statistical.

it doesnt take into account stuff like safety, average culture and other things.

Please note I'm not saying yah we are the best or anything but that there is actually a lot of people here in Australia take to much for granted.

[Mike - Limestone]

Very interesting that Australia is so high. What makes it so?

(Also, what is healthcare like in Australia?)

-mike

[Kairus]

Originally Posted by Mike - Limestone

Very interesting that Australia is so high. What makes it so?

(Also, what is healthcare like in Australia?)

-mike

Not the internet, that's for sure!

[unity100]

Originally Posted by Mike - Limestone

Very interesting that Australia is so high. What makes it so?

(Also, what is healthcare like in Australia?)

-mike

healthcare, employment, unemployment, finding jobs, job security, social security etc.

[Aussie Bob]

Originally Posted by Mike - Limestone

Very interesting that Australia is so high. What makes it so?

We're just so full of awesome.

(Also, what is healthcare like in Australia?)

It's free, like the public schools, but if you want a higher quality of service, then you have private health insurance, and you use private hospitals.

The waiting lists in the public hospital system is pretty huge. It's far from a perfect health care system, but it is what it is.

[Aussie Bob]

Originally Posted by Kairus

Not the internet, that's for sure!

Oh god, aint that the truth.

Although we are getting a fibre to the home network rolled out (the NBN), pretty much Australia wide (next gen fast satellite access for rural folks), so by that time we should be pretty much caught up with the really broke and small European countries.

[fwaggle]

The internet is actually pretty good in Australia, at least in terms of end-pipe speeds. Contrast much of rural (not out-back, but people a few hundred KM from the coast who aren't in a capital city) Australia to much of rural USA, and you'd be surprised to find that much of the internet speeds are actually better here.

Like the USA, many ADSL packages in Australia that are advertised as "broadband" don't actually qualify for it, but my parents are way out in the sticks and their DSL actually syncs faster downstream than our DSL in a small town (and only a thousand feet or so from the CO) in the USA.

Much of Australia's issues are the expensive pipes to the rest of the world, so you end up with "low" bandwidth caps. But looking in the direction the USA is heading right now, Australia's internet isn't as dark-ages as it used to be.

As far as the rest of Australia goes, BeZazz is 100% correct: many Australians are completely oblivious as to how freakin' good they have it.

[dthigpen]

Nice, Turkey is #66, much higher than I expected it to be.

[mg-]

Canada gets dragged down by the newfies..