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| Understanding the Human Development Index
Go to www.undp.org/ to find more about the United Nations Development Program and the human development index. The most recent summary of the index available online (at the time this was written) was from the 2002 report at hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2002/en/. Go there to evaluate the factors that make up this important measure of human welfare. In which categories does Canada rank higher than the United States? How might you explain these differences? Now compare the United States or Canada with one of the countries at the bottom of the index. In which categories do you find the greatest differences? Which of these measures is most closely related to environmental quality? If you were going to invest in improving the quality of life for residents of one of the countries with the lowest HDI, where would you start? What factors do you think have the greatest impact on this ranking? You can find much more detailed information about particular countries in databases maintained by the World Bank (www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/countrydata.html), the Central Intelligence Agency (www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html), and the Library of Congress (memory.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html). Go to one of these sources to understand the factors that lead to higher or lower quality of life in a specific country. |