Estonian Human Development Report
Estonian Human Development Report - Eesti Koostöö Kogu
Estonian Human Development Report - Eesti Koostöö Kogu
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of countries and as a tool for monitoring the developmental<br />
dynamics of individual countries. Using the levels of single<br />
dimensions rather than the composite index is especially<br />
informative for monitoring the development of a country.<br />
<strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong> <strong>Report</strong> 2007/2008<br />
and Estonia’s place in the ranking<br />
Each UN <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong> <strong>Report</strong> deals with global<br />
problems that are important for humankind during the<br />
current year. The most recent report (UN <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong><br />
<strong>Report</strong> 2007/2008) is dedicated to climate change.<br />
However, in the current report, we comment only the second<br />
part of the HDR 2007/2008, which includes tables<br />
with the indicators regarding the human development of<br />
UN member states. These indicators focus primarily on<br />
the <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong> Index, its components and their<br />
dynamics. Technically, the data included in these reports<br />
cannot be very fresh since the collection, quality assessment<br />
and calculation of the indicators are unavoidably a<br />
time-consuming assignment. Therefore the majority of<br />
the data in the 2007/2008 report dates from 2005.<br />
However, a new document, the <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong><br />
Indices, was published on 18 December, 2008, which<br />
presents concretized and corrected HDI data based on<br />
2006 data. Compared to the former document, Estonia has<br />
arisen two places in the human development ranking and<br />
has reached 42 nd place among 179 countries. Based on the<br />
HDI, the countries were categorised into three groups.<br />
• Countries of high human development (total 75);<br />
• Countries of medium human development (total 78),<br />
• Countries of low human development (total 26).<br />
Due to a lack of information, 15 countries were omitted<br />
from the ranking.<br />
Based on this division, Estonia definitely belongs to the<br />
countries of high human development, being in 42 nd place.<br />
Twenty-six European countries held higher positions in<br />
the last HDI ranking starting with Iceland (1) and Norway<br />
(2), incl. the majority of EU countries, except for Lithuania<br />
(43), Latvia (44), Bulgaria (56) and Romania (62), which<br />
are in the same group but located below Estonia. The countries<br />
with higher human development indices than Estonia<br />
include countries from all corners of the world except<br />
Africa. In America, Canada (3) and the US (15) are well<br />
ahead of Estonia; Chile (40) has also surpassed Estonia.<br />
Australia (4) is at the top of the ranking, but New Zealand<br />
(20) and Brunei Darussalam located on the island of Borneo<br />
(27) are also ahead of Estonia. The ranking of Asian<br />
countries is led by Japan (8), followed by Hong Kong (22),<br />
Israel (24), South Korea (25), Singapore (28) and a series of<br />
Arab countries – Kuwait (29), United Arab Emirates (31),<br />
Bahrain (32), Qatar (34) and also an Caribbean country –<br />
Barbados (37) surpass Estonia. Of the European countries,<br />
those with indices lower than Estonia’s include Montenegro<br />
(64), Serbia (65), Belarus (67), Macedonia (68), Albania (69),<br />
Russian Federation (73), as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina<br />
(75). Of the African countries, Seychelles (54) and Mauritius<br />
(74) belong to this group.<br />
Of European countries, the only ones of medium<br />
human development are Ukraine (82), Armenia (83),<br />
Georgia (93) and Azerbaijan (97). Of the larger countries,<br />
China is in 94 th place and India in 132 nd place.<br />
There are 26 countries of low human development, 25<br />
of which are located in Africa.<br />
Two-year-old (previously also three-year-old) data<br />
is used to calculate the <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong> Index. The<br />
basic material for the 2007/2008 report includes data from<br />
2005, and in the updated table that is commented on here,<br />
2006 data was used.<br />
Life expectancy index According to UN data, the average<br />
life expectancy at birth in Estonia in 2006 was 71.3<br />
years; as a result of standardization, the index value was<br />
calculated at 0.771.<br />
The education index includes two sub-indices. One of<br />
these shows the literacy rate of those who are at least 15<br />
years old (with the weight 2/3), which is not measured in<br />
the majority of developed countries. In this case, an indicator<br />
value of 0.99 is assigned. The second sub-index is<br />
the combined net primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment<br />
rates -, which is calculated as the ratio of enrolled<br />
students to school-aged children and young people. The<br />
gross enrolment rate in Estonia according to UN data is<br />
91.2% and the education index value is 0.964. Until 1995,<br />
the education index was based on the average number of<br />
study years instead of the level of formal education, which<br />
was standardized for the purposes of uniformity.<br />
Living standard index. The distribution of incomes by<br />
countries is very different. In order to ensure that the various<br />
values of GDP (especially the high values) do not have<br />
too strong an impact on the <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong> Index,<br />
suitable modifications are used when calculating the subindex<br />
that reduces its variability. Initially, only GDP values<br />
that are higher than average were modified, but since<br />
2000, the upper threshold is used to cut off the highest<br />
GDP values, and thereafter the logarithm for the results is<br />
found. According to the UN, Estonia’s GDP value in 2006<br />
was 19,155 US dollars per capita, which corresponds to a<br />
sub-index value of 0.877, and as an average of the three<br />
components, the average <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong> Index<br />
value (HDI) is 0.871.<br />
On examining Estonia’s ranking by the <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Development</strong><br />
Index, we have noticed that Estonia’s position in<br />
the rankings for the separate components is quite different.<br />
Figure 1.1.2. Life expectancy in countries of high human<br />
development. The large diamond denotes Estonia<br />
85<br />
80<br />
75<br />
70<br />
65<br />
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70<br />
Source: HDR 2007/2008<br />
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