How accurate do you think is Human Development Index (HDI) for Latin America?

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Current rankings (global ranking, and then HDI value)

45th – Chile – .878

47th – Argentina – .865

48th – Uruguay – .862

59th – Panama – .839

62nd – Costa Rica – .833

79th – Peru – .794

81st – Mexico – .789

83rd – Colombia – .788

84th – Brazil – .786

88th – Ecuador – .777

89th – Dominican Republic – .776

97th – Cuba – .762

99th – Paraguay – .756

108th – Bolivia – .733

115th – Belize – .721

121st – Venezuela – .709

123rd – Nicaragua – .706

132nd – El Salvador – .678

137th – Guatemala – .662

139th – Honduras – .645

Comments

  1. ijdfw8 Avatar

    It doesnt tell the full story. I’d much rather be a millionare in Brasil or Mexico than a billionare in Uruguay. Nothing against Uruguay, on the contrary, but serious money in any of those countries is better than pretty much anywhere else in the world.

    On average tho, it seems somewhat accurate.

  2. SpecialK--- Avatar

    I already mentioned here I think HDI is a flawed methodology. This number is certainly not meaningless, it indicates something important. But it is still flawed in some key ways.

    1. It doesn’t account for economic volatility, which directly impacts quality of life. Argentina is such a case.

    2. Countries that are more big and more heterogeneous are more likely to score lower, because they have regions that are poorly inhabited / lacking in infrastructure. This is Brazil’s and China’s case. China’s HDI is not very high, it has sparsely populated areas (Tibet) with low HDI and populated areas with very high HDI. Brazil scores lower than Peru on this list, Brazil has a poorly populated Northern region and the Amazon, but it’s guaranteed Brazil’s most populous urban centers (such as São Paulo) are more developed than Lima, and have better infrastructure

    3. Does anyone really think living in Cuba is better than living in Paraguay? These numbers would say so. This number places a lot of importance on education and life expectancy without weighting how many economic opportunities a country gives its citizens, the quality of the lived experience is more than healthcare and education

    Also, at some point differences in HDI become meaningless. Iceland has a higher HDI than Japan, most people would still prefer to live in Japan due to its competitive market, job prospects and the versatility of experiences you could get there.

  3. Tukulo-Meyama Avatar

    Seems accurate to me

  4. Zestyclose_Clue4209 Avatar

    Cuba’s stats it’s fake

  5. melochupan Avatar

    I guess it’s accurate at measuring what it measures. I don’t know if it measures human development though, that’s a subjective concept.

  6. GlazingStalin Avatar

    it’s extremely flawed. the adjusted one for equality is slightly better but still flawed. countries like argentina treat education like its an adult daycare so their number is high. Mexico and Brazil have a lot of violence so their lifespan is lower.

    not to mention most of the countries outside of peru have currencies that are officially much lower than wht they give to world bank