What does Vietnam's human development index say?
With a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.704, Vietnam is classified in the high human development group and ranks 117/189 countries and territories.
From 1990 to 2019, Vietnam's HDI increased by 45.8%, among the countries with the highest HDI growth rate in the world. So what is HDI?
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| Students' outdoor activities. Photo: Ke Kien |
First published in 1990, the HDI is a comparative and quantitative index of income levels, literacy rates (education) and life expectancy of countries in the world. The HDI is calculated based on three basic factors: Income - Gross National Income Index (GNI)/person; Knowledge - education index and Health - expressed through average life expectancy at birth. However, over the years, the need for a more comprehensive "formula" to assess other important aspects of human development has been increasingly concerned.
Accordingly, a new calculation formula including aspects of human development has been introduced and helps to complete the HDI, including issues that were previously not taken into account in development such as poverty, inequality and gender gap. Since 2010, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has published the HDI taking into account inequality, accordingly, adjusting the HDI value of a country for inequality according to factors of life, education and income, as well as using the Multidimensional Poverty Index to directly calculate the poverty status of the people...
According to the latest report of UNDP released on the afternoon of December 16, Vietnam is now among the countries with high HDI in the world. In 2019, Vietnam's HDI was 0.704, ranked 117/189 countries and territories, up 1 place compared to 2018. From 1990 to 2019, Vietnam's HDI value increased by 45.8%, among the countries with the highest HDI growth rate in the world.
The 2020 Global Human Development Report, titled “The Next Frontier: Human Development in the Age of Human Impact on Climate and the Environment,” states that Vietnam’s “Human Development” progress has been achieved with moderate and stable levels of inequality.
Vietnam’s life expectancy at birth increased by 4.8 years, average years of schooling increased by 4.4 years, and expected years of schooling increased by 4.9 years. Vietnam’s per capita gross national income (GNI) increased by more than 370% between 1990 and 2019.
UNDP highly appreciates Vietnam's people-centered development policy.prioritize human developmentand promote equality in the country's socio-economic development strategies and plans.
According to this latest report, Vietnam is in the High Human Development Group with relatively low levels of inequality. Notably, the decline in Vietnam's HDI value due to inequality in 2019 was 16.5%; the decline in income due to inequality was 19.1% and the GINI coefficient (used to represent income inequality across regions, areas, and classes of a country) was 35.7 - one of the lowest levels in the East Asia and Pacific region.
However, Vietnam is in the bottom third in terms of vulnerable employment rate (54.1%) as the majority of the workforce depends on self-employment in household businesses.
With a Gender Development Index of 0.997, Vietnam ranks 65th out of 162 countries. In particular, the proportion of female parliamentarians puts Vietnam in the highest group of the three groups globally. Vietnam still faces challenges in gender inequality: it is in the bottom group of the three groups globally in terms of sex ratio at birth (1.12); violence against women (34.4%) and women with accounts in financial institutions or electronic money service providers (30.4%)./.
