Human Poverty Index
The Human Poverty Index was an indication of the poverty of community in a country, developed by the United Nations to complement the Human Development Index and was first reported as part of the Human Deprivation Report in 1997. It was considered to better reflect the extent of deprivation in deprived countries compared to the HDI. In 2010 it was supplanted by the UN's Multidimensional Poverty Index.
The HPI concentrates on the deprivation in the three essential elements of human life already reflected in the HDI: longevity, knowledge and a decent standard of living. The HPI is derived separately for developing countries and a group of select high-income OECD countries to better reflect socio-economic differences and also the widely different measures of deprivation in the two groups.
For developing countries (HPI-1)
The Human Development Reports website summarizes this as "A composite index measuring deprivations in the three basic dimensions captured in the human development index—a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living." The formula for calculating it is:- HPI-1 =
- The percentage of the population without access to safe water.
- The percentage of population without access to health services.
- The percentage of malnourished children under five.
For selected high-income OECD countries (HPI-2)
- HPI-2 =
| Ranking | Country | HPI-2 | Probability at birth of not surviving to age 60 | People lacking functional literacy skills | Long-term unemployment | Population below 50% of median income |
| 1 | 6.3 | 6.7 | 7.5 | 1.1 | 6.5 | |
| 2 | 6.8 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 0.5 | 6.4 | |
| 3 | 8.1 | 8.3 | 10.5 | 1.8 | 7.3 | |
| 4 | 8.1 | 9.4 | 10.4 | 1.8 | 5.4 | |
| 5 | 8.2 | 10.3 | 9.6 | 0.8 | 5.6 | |
| 6 | 10.3 | 8.6 | 14.4 | 5.8 | 8.4 | |
| 7 | 10.7 | 7.2 | 15.9 | 1.5 | 7.6 | |
| 8 | 10.9 | 8.1 | 14.6 | 0.5 | 11.4 | |
| 9 | 11.1 | 9.2 | — | 1.2 | 6.0 | |
| 10 | 11.1 | 8.8 | — | 1.3 | 7.7 | |
| 11 | 11.2 | 8.9 | — | 4.1 | 7.3 | |
| 12 | 11.7 | 6.9 | — | 1.3 | 11.8 | |
| 13 | 12.1 | 7.3 | 17.0 | 0.9 | 12.2 | |
| 14 | 12.4 | 9.3 | 18.4 | 4.6 | 8.0 | |
| 15 | 12.5 | 7.7 | — | 2.2 | 14.2 | |
| 16 | 14.8 | 8.7 | 21.8 | 1.2 | 12.5 | |
| 17 | 15.4 | 11.6 | 20.0 | 0.4 | 17.0 | |
| 18 | 16.0 | 8.7 | 22.6 | 1.5 | 16.2 | |
| 19 | 29.8 | 7.7 | 47.0 | 3.4 | 12.7 |
The countries ranked in the top 22 by HPI that are not on this list are Iceland, New Zealand and Liechtenstein.
Not all countries are included in this ranking because data are not always available. The ranks of many countries, especially those at the bottom, could drop considerably if the list included more countries. For information about the component values for countries other than the ones on the list, see source links below.
Indicators used are:
- Probability at birth of not surviving to age 60, 2000–2005. Varies from 7.1% for Japan to 11.8% for the USA. This is the indicator that is best known for all countries. The US has specific values associated with disease characteristics of poverty. Worse values start only at position 35 of the HDI, indicating that many countries could climb on an extended list based on this, knocking down lower ranked countries on the above list.
- People lacking functional literacy skills. Varies from 7.5% for Sweden to 47.0% for Italy. These figures are higher than most commonly cited illiteracy rates due to the choice of the literacy test.
- Long-term unemployment, 2005. Varies from 0.4% for the United States to 5.0% for Germany. This indicator has by far the greatest variation, with a value as high as 9.3% at HDI position 37.
- Population below 50% of median adjusted household disposable income, 1994–2002. Varies from 5.4% for Finland to 17% for the US.