World Sociology

The Human Development Index

The Human Development Index is a well-regarded way of ascertaining the developmental state of a country. Besides looking at the GDP of the nation, it considers other factors including education and life expectancy.

This is useful as it affords Sociologists and Economists a more complete picture. For example, Vietnam and Pakistan have a similar GDP but life expectancy and education levels are considerably higher in Vietnam. Countries are classified as ‘very high human potential’ and therefore ‘developed’, ‘high human development’ is next, followed by ‘medium’ and ‘low’. A useful starting point for information on this can be found here:

Discover More HDI - The Human Development Index

Students could investigate the position in the index of the country they chose in the introductory task. Then, in comparison with a country in the top five positions, consider why their nation is ranked so low. This could be written up as a report in their own words.