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Gender Development Index

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Human Development Index (HDI)

What you should know about this indicator

  • The Gender Development Index (GDI) measures gender inequalities in achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: health, measured by female and male life expectancy at birth; education, measured by female and male expected years of schooling for children and female and male mean years of schooling for adults ages 25 years and older; and command over economic resources, measured by female and male estimated earned income.
  • Values below 1 indicate higher human development for men than women, while values above 1 indicate the opposite. Values close to 1 therefore indicate higher gender equality.
Gender Development Index
The Gender Development Index (GDI) measures gender inequalities in the achievement of key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, a good education, and a decent standard of living.
Source
UNDP, Human Development Report (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
April 9, 2024
Next expected update
April 2025
Date range
1990–2022

Related research and writing

Featured image for the article on the Human Development indices. Stylized world maps of the different indices.

The Human Development Index and related indices: what they are and what we can learn from them

Bastian Herre and Pablo Arriagada

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Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The 2023/24 Human Development Report assesses the dangerous gridlock resulting from uneven development progress, intensifying inequality, and escalating political polarization, that we must urgently tackle. The report emphasizes how global interdependence is being reconfigured and proposes a path forward where multilateralism plays a pivotal role.

Additional resources related to the 2023/2024 Human Development Report can be found online at http://hdr.undp.org. Resources on the website include digital versions and translations of the Report and the overview in multiple languages, an interactive web version of the Report, a set of background papers and think pieces commissioned for the Report, interactive data visualizations and databases of human development indicators, full explanations of the sources and methodologies used in the Report’s composite indices, country insights and other background materials, and previous global, regional and national Human Development Reports. Corrections and addenda are also available online.

Technical notes (region definitions, reports, etc.) can be found at https://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2023-24_HDR/hdr2023-24_technical_notes.pdf.

Retrieved on
April 9, 2024
Retrieved from
https://hdr.undp.org/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). 2024. Human Development Report 2023-24: Breaking the gridlock: Reimagining cooperation in a polarized world. New York.

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Notes on our processing step for this indicator

We calculated averages over continents and income groups by taking the population-weighted average of the countries in each group. If less than 80% of countries in an area report data for a given year, we do not calculate the average for that area.

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Gender Development Index”, part of the following publication: Bastian Herre and Pablo Arriagada (2023) - “The Human Development Index and related indices: what they are and what we can learn from them”. Data adapted from UNDP, Human Development Report. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gender-development-index [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

UNDP, Human Development Report (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

UNDP, Human Development Report (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Gender Development Index” [dataset]. UNDP, Human Development Report, “Human Development Report 2023-2024” [original data]. Retrieved December 3, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gender-development-index