Pakistan ranks 152nd in UN's Human Development Index, lower than others in South Asia

Pakistan has been ranked at 152nd position among 189 other countries in the Human Development Index (HDI) 2019, dropping it to the lowest than all other regional countries in South Asia.

"Pakistan's ranking stood at 13 per cent below the average HDI of South Asia including Bangladesh and India. Pakistan made progress from 2000 to 2015 but its progress slowed down afterward," stated the HDR 2019, which was launched by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in December, News International reported.

In 2017, Pakistan ranked at 151 position in the HDR. The HDI improved by 25 per cent from 2000 to 2015 with an average annual growth of 1.2 per cent but the progress slowed down since then.

Despite improvements in education and income indicators, the country's HDI was still lower than comparable economies of the South Asian region, as it was 13 per cent below the average HDI of South Asia and 12 per cent below the average HDI of medium human development category.

Pakistan further lowered on performing on account of life expectancy at birth, expected years of schooling, mean years of schooling and Gross National Income (GNI) per capita with all the regional countries of South Asia.

The country also had a higher percentage of inequality in the health and education dimension as compared to the average of South Asia and other medium HDI countries.

Meanwhile, on account of the Gender Development Index (GDI), the HDR 2019 states that Pakistan's ratio of the 2018 female HDI value stood at 0.464 and the male HDI value 0.622, resulted in GDOI value of 0.747.

According to the HDR report, Sri Lanka was ranked at 130th position; Bhutan at 134th; India at 129th; Bangladesh at 135th; Nepal at 147th; Pakistan at 152nd; and Afghanistan ranked at 170th position in South Asia.