UNDP report: India's health & education gains propel HDI rank to 130, surpassing Pakistan

India’s Human Development Index ranking moved up four notches from 134 in 2022 to 130 in 2023, putting the country in the medium human development category alongside Bangladesh, according to a new report released by the United Nations Development Programme.

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. India's HDI value for 2023 is 0.685, positioning it at 130 out of 193 countries and territories.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's HDI value for 2023 is 0.544— which puts the country in the Low human development category—positioning it at 168 out of 193 countries and territories. Bangladesh's HDI value for 2023 is 0.685— which puts the country in the Medium human development category—placing it at 130 out of 193 countries and territories.

Neighbouring Nepal's HDI value for 2023 is 0.622—which puts the country in the Medium human development category—indexing it at 145 out of 193 countries and territories.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's HDI value for 2023 is 0.776— which puts the country in the High human development category—positioning it at 89 out of 193 countries and territories.

Between 1990 and 2023, India's HDI value changed from 0.446 to 0.685, a change of 53.6%.

Between 1990 and 2023, India's life expectancy at birth changed by 13.38 years, expected years of schooling changed by 4.75 years and mean years of schooling changed by 4.10 years. India's GNI per capita changed by about 317.4% between 1990 and 2023.

The 2023 female HDI value for India is 0.631 in contrast to 0.722 for males, resulting in a GDI value of 0.874. The GDI measures gender gaps in achievements in three basic dimensions of human development: health (measured by female and male life expectancy at birth), knowledge (measured by female and male expected years of schooling for children and mean years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and older) and living standards (measured by female and male estimated GNI per capita). It is a ratio of the female to the male HDI.

As the inequality in a country increases, the loss in human development also increases. India's loss due to inequality is 30.66%, which lowers the HDI to 0.475 in 2023. The IHDI adjusts the HDI for inequality in the distribution of each dimension across the population. The ‘loss’ in human development due to inequality is given by the difference between the HDI and the IHDI.

India has a GII value of 0.403, ranking it 102 out of 172 countries in 2023. The GII measures gender inequalities in three key dimensions – reproductive health, empowerment, and labour market. Reproductive health is measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates; empowerment is measured by the shares of parliamentary seats held and population with at least some secondary education by each gender; and labour market participation is measured by the labour force participation rates for women and men.

Human development progress is experiencing an unprecedented slowdown, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The 2025 Human Development Report, 'A matter of choice: people and possibilities in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)', analyses development progress across a range of indicators known as the Human Development Index (HDI), which encompasses achievements in health and education, along with levels of income. Projections for 2024 reveal stalled progress on the HDI in all regions across the world.

India has the highest self-reported AI skill prevalence globally but even as lower-income countries cultivate talent pools, systematic gaps in compute, data and institutional support drive net losses, skilled workers migrate to higher-income countries, the report said.