Nigeria drops 3 places to 161 in UN's 2020 human development index

Africa’s biggest economy dropped three spots to 161 in 2019 from 158 in 2018 among 189 countries in the 2020 Human Development Index (HDI), according to a new report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

The country’s HDI value for 2019 was 0.539 which put the country in the low human development category.

Although, Nigeria dropped in its ranking, the report noted that between the period of 2005 and 2019, the country’s HDI value increased from 0.465 to 0.539, an increase of 15.9 percent.

“Reviews of Nigeria’s progress in each of the HDI indicators shows that between 1990 and 2019, its life expectancy at birth increased by 8.8 years, mean years of schooling increased by 1.4 years and expected years of schooling increased by 3.3 years. Also, Nigeria’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita increased by about 58.0 percent between 1990 and 2019,” the report further stated.

The HDI is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human
development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.

A long and healthy life is measured by life expectancy. Knowledge level is measured by mean years of schooling among the adult population, which is the average number of years of schooling received in a life-time by people aged 25 years and older; and access to learning and knowledge by expected years of schooling for children of school-entry age, which is the total number of years of schooling a child of school-entry age can expect to receive if prevailing patterns of age-specific enrolment rates stay the same throughout the child’s life.

Standard of living is measured by GNI per capita expressed in constant 2017 international dollars converted using purchasing power parity (PPP) conversion rates.

For the first time, the UNDP introduced a new metric to reflect the impact caused by each country’s per-capita carbon emissions and its material footprint, which measures the amount of fossil fuels, metals and other resources used to make the goods and services it consumes.

Also, this year marks the 30th Anniversary of the first Human Development Report and of the introduction of HDI. It was published to steer discussions about development progress away from GPD towards a measure that genuinely “counts” for people’s lives.