Short answers, pulled from the story.
Pakistani economist Mahbub ul-Haq launched the Human Development Index in 1990 through the United Nations Development Programme. This annual report shifted focus from national income accounting to people-centered policies.
The 2010 Human Development Report combined long healthy lives measured by life expectancy at birth, education via mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling, and decent living standards using gross national income per capita. Life Expectancy Index reaches one when life expectancy hits 85 years but drops to zero at 20 years.
Norway ranked first with an HDI score of 0.972 followed closely by Switzerland at 0.970 while Iceland held third place with 0.962. Seventy-four countries achieved very high human development status according to this dataset.
This index represents actual levels of human development accounting for inequality within nations instead of potential maximum achievement if no inequality existed. The UNDP stated these changes directly address critiques regarding misclassification of low or medium development categories.
Formula revisions caused 21% misclassification while thresholds created 34% errors in development bin assignments according to researchers Hendrik Wolff Howard Chong and Maximilian Auffhammer. Their research found 11% of countries misclassified due to data updating issues alone.