Armenia Falls Behind Azerbaijan, Georgia in Human Development

Armenia was ranked 76th out of 170 countries, having “high development,” in a 2010 UN report on human development which uses a single statistic to combine indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income into a composite Human Development Index (HDI).

Armenia’s profile, in short, is as follows: life expectancy at birth: 74.2 years; mean years of schooling (of adults): 10.8 years; and income (GNI) per capita: $5,494.61 USD (considering 2008 data). 

Note that out of the former Soviet countries, only Estonia (at 34th place) has succeeded in making it to the “high human development” list which groups countries in first to 42nd place in the index. 

Armenia surpasses Turkey (at 83rd place) in HDI; however, falls behind Georgia (74) and Azerbaijan (67). That being said, all four countries in the region are in the same category: “high human development” (rankings 43rd to 85th).

Topping the list of countries with the highest human development index are Norway, Australia, New Zealand, United States and Ireland in that order. 

The countries ranked with the lowest human development index include Mozambique, Burundi, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.

A number of countries had to be considered separately by the UN since the organization did not have the opportunity to gather sufficient information on them. These countries include North Korea, Cuba, Iraq, Lebanon, as well as high-ranking countries San Marino and Monaco.