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The human development index (HDI) is a national average which hides large variations internally in a country, particularly when it comes to the Roma in southern Europe, UNDP writes. (DF Watch photo.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Georgia is one of the countries that have a high level of human development.

This can be gleaned from the new Human Development Report 2013 — The Rise of the South: Human Progress in a Diverse World.

“The rise of the South is unprecedented in its speed and scale,” the authors write. “Never in history have the living conditions and prospects of so many people changed so dramatically and so fast.”

Georgia is in second place after Cuba among the top five countries with a high human development that ranked better on the Human Development Index (HDI) than on gross national income per capita in 2012.

The HDI was introduced in the first Human Development Report in 1990 as a composite measurement of development that challenged purely economic assessments of national progress.

The HDI in the 2013 report covers 187 countries and territories, among which Georgia is in 72. place with an HDI of 0.745. The index is an indicator that includes three main criteria: average length of life, rate of education and gross income per capita.

Georgia’s average life expectancy is 73.9 years, its average education 12 academic years, annual average rate of income per capita USD 5,005.

In 2011, Georgia was in 75. place, but as the report says, the HDI rankings and values in the 2013 Human Development Report cannot be compared directly to HDI rankings and values published in the previous such reports.

Read the whole report here:

http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2013_EN_complete.pdf