Turkey ranked 59^th among 189 countries by the Human Development Index, placing the country in the “very high human development” category first time ever. Turkey improved by 39.4 percent over the past 28 years by this indicator of progress in human development.

Ankara, 9 December 2019 – Turkey, by an index value of 0.806, ranked 59^th among 189 countries and territories by the new Human Development Index (HDI), ascending for first time ever to the “very high human development category” from the high human development category in the previous report.

The United Nations Development Programme released the “Human Development Report 2019” including Human Development Index, Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, Gender Development Index, Gender Inequality Index, and Multidimensional Poverty Index relying on the 2018 data.

Based on the official data from national statistics offices, HDI is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.

As a most recognised development index in the world, HDI is centred on a new generation of inequalities, education, technology and climate change.

Norway maintained its top position at 0.954 in HDI ranking, followed by Switzerland at 0.946, Ireland at 0.942, Germany and Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region, China) both at 0.939.

At the bottom of HDI rankings were Niger at 0.377, Central African Republic at 0.381, Chad at 0.401, South Sudan at 0.401 and Burundi at 0.423.

Turkey’s HDI for 2018 was computed as 0.806, placing it at 59^th rank among 189 countries, and in the “very high human development” category for first time ever. Turkey ranked 64^th in the previous report, and was categorised as a “high human development” country.

The new report calculated the average index value as 0.892 for the very high human development group, and 0.779 for the countries in Europe and Central Asia.

Turkey made significant progress over the past 28 years in this index as a measure of human development. Turkey’s HDI value was 0.579 in 1990, and rose by 39.4 percent to 0.806 in 2018.

Between 1990 and 2018, Turkey's life expectancy at birth increased by 13.2 years, mean years of schooling increased by 3.1 years and expected years of schooling increased by 7.5 years. Turkey's gross national income per capita increased by 122.1 percent in the same period.

When adjusted for inequality, Turkey’s HDI fell to 0.675 representing a loss of 16.2 percent due to inequality in the distribution of HDI dimension indices. The average loss due to inequality for very high HDI countries was 10.7 percent, and 11.7 percent for Europe and Central Asia.

The report also included the Gender Inequality Index based on gender gaps in reproductive health, women’s empowerment and economic activities.

Turkey ranked 66th among 162 countries at 0.305 for this index which revealed the loss in human development due to inequalities between female and male achievements.

For more information:

Faik Uyanık faik.uyanik@undp.org and Bahar Paykoç bahar.paykoc@undp.org