Tag Archives: development

How African Countries Compare to One Another

scoring africa

The African continent is home to 54 countries ranging from prosperous ones to countries that are plagued by violence and extreme poverty.

The chart above shows how African countries compare with one another, taking into account different indicators such as human rights, education, the state of the economy, political stability, the diversity and size of its population, and access to healthcare.

Countries with the highest score (best) include Mauritius, South Africa, and Seychelles. Countries with the lowest score (worst) include Somalia and Chad. In between these two extremes there are a wide range of countries performing well in some areas, and not so well in others.

Source: PolicyMic: This Awesome Interactive Map Will Make You Think Twice About Africa

 

Human Development Index 2012

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite measure that includes three indicators: life expectancy at birth, level of education attained, and income. The HDI is an alternative to the purely economical GDP, that quantifies economic growth only. Thus, the HDI provide a way to gauge the development of a country. The HDI for 2012 includes 187 countries.

The HDI ranks countries according to their degree of development using a scale from 0 to1, 0 being the least developed and 1 being the most developed country.

In the HDI map above, published by the Brazilian media site Globo.com we find that Norway has a score of 0.955, ranking number one as the most developed country (color green). Norway is followed by Australia, the U.S., the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, among others.

At the other end of the spectrum we find the least developed nations (color purple), including the majority of African nations, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea.