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Lowest HDI Countries with Exceptions

Name the least-developed countries outside Africa, according to the Human Development Index.
2021/2022 HDI Report. Data from the year 2021.
HDI measures income, life expectancy, and education
Quiz by Matthew07
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Last updated: November 3, 2022
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First submittedOctober 10, 2016
Times taken36,827
Average score75.0%
Rating4.73
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HDI
Country
0.455
Yemen
0.478
Afghanistan
0.535
Haiti
0.544
Pakistan
0.558
Papua New Guinea
0.564
Solomon Islands
0.577
Syria
0.585
Myanmar
HDI
Country
0.593
Cambodia
0.602
Nepal
0.607
Vanuatu
0.607
East Timor
0.607
Laos
0.621
Honduras
0.624
Kiribati
0.627
Guatemala
HDI
Country
0.628
F. S. Micronesia
0.633
India
0.639
Marshall Islands
0.641
Tuvalu
0.661
Bangladesh
0.666
Bhutan
0.667
Nicaragua
0.675
El Salvador
+51
Level 77
Oct 3, 2018
I assume there's no data for North Korea? I can't imagine they wouldn't be on this list otherwise.
+63
Level 63
Oct 4, 2018
acording to north korean data, 0,999
+40
Level 66
Oct 11, 2018
More like 1,004
+22
Level 85
Oct 4, 2018
Way to go, North Korea and Venezuela!
+3
Level 86
Oct 5, 2018
Guatemala also has a 2018 HDI of .650 - surely it should count?
+5
Level 76
Oct 7, 2018
No sign of North Korea in the source statistics - they'd surely appear here otherwise.
+25
Level 81
Nov 30, 2018
The HDI DPRK is 0.733 according to https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/wp-09-02.pdf.

Education is a factor and the education system is well developed, universal, and compulsory. Literacy is 99% with the 1% illiterate probably very elderly women. Even life expectancy is quite high. It's 157 according to the list.

+43
Level 71
Dec 17, 2018
Life expectancy in North Korea is 157 years?? Maybe one shouldn't trust North Korea's own statistics...
+4
Level 79
Jan 26, 2019
But the DPRK considers all citizens who can write the Dear Leader's name as literate..........
+9
Level 87
Dec 23, 2020
Hey! At least there I'm literate! 김정은
+4
Level 74
Mar 21, 2021
157??? Nobody has ever been that old, not even Sardinians or Okinawans.
+18
Level 54
Mar 21, 2021
ranked 157th, life expectancy is 68.0 years.
+5
Level 57
Mar 21, 2021
Being ranked 157th isn’t exactly a good thing...
+2
Level 43
Nov 30, 2018
why not calculate Africa lol
+47
Level 82
Nov 30, 2018
They have calculated HDI for African countries. They're all near the bottom. You're missing the point of the quiz.
+12
Level 50
Nov 6, 2022
He is missing the point of the quiz, but the word "all" is inaccurate here.
+1
Level 58
Feb 27, 2023
not all. North Africa is doing pretty well, and some small african country (Gabon, Equatorial Guinea) are kinda fine
+4
Level 44
Nov 30, 2018
Very interesting quiz. Was a little surprised to see that Yemen has such a low index, I had the idea the whole Arabian Peninsula region was wealthy because of oil - I suppose the current conflict in Yemen has just exposed long term socioeconomic problems that had previously been little-publicised?
+5
Level 58
Nov 30, 2018
Yemen does not have much oil, and what it did have is running out.
+18
Level 82
Nov 30, 2018
Though oil poor next to any of it's nearby Arabian neighbors, Yemen's oil reserves are not negligible. However, the country has long been rife with conflict and corruption as it has played host to civil wars and proxy wars between Saudi Arabia and Egypt and now Saudi Arabia and Iran, and those oil reserves have never been fully exploited.
+1
Level 70
Nov 30, 2018
Another problem is lack of water.
+2
Level 82
Dec 1, 2018
That's not a problem unique to Yemen in the region.
+7
Level 70
Dec 2, 2018
Yes but it's an extreme problem in Yemen. The Saudis aren't helping the situation.
+7
Level 57
Mar 21, 2021
Yemen’s much more densely populated than Saudi Arabia or Oman, so I could definitely see water being a bigger issue there.
+1
Level 69
Dec 1, 2018
Tried out the way more difficult to spell Kyrgyzstan but never thought to also try Tajikistan. Blimey!
+3
Level 82
Feb 24, 2019
Darn it. Took this quiz 3x now and twice forgot Papua New Guinea.
+2
Level 87
Dec 23, 2020
I still don't understand this quiz series. Tuvalu isn't on here, and I believe the country has one single car. And I challenge anyone to travel the main island of Palau (on the most-developed list) and then the FSM capital island of Pohnpei (on the least-developed list) and tell me which one appears "more developed"... with supposedly more than 100 countries in between!
+2
Level 83
Dec 24, 2020
that's more cars than the Channel Island of Sark
+20
Level 68
Dec 30, 2020
HDI is based on income, life expectancy, and education, not the number of cars or buildings in the country.
+2
Level 77
Dec 23, 2020
Bangladesh should be near the very bottom. Don't think you'd find many people that would rather live there than Cambodia, for example
+9
Level 71
Mar 21, 2021
I'd much rather live in Bangladesh than Cambodia. As a person of Bangladeshi descent, I may be biased... but even if Bangladesh and Cambodia are comparable to each other, I think most people would much rather live in Bangladesh than in Afghanistan, Syria, Myanmar, or even Pakistan.
+4
Level 75
Dec 26, 2020
Not having Africa does make this a slightly odd quiz, but it's easily understandable why it's done that way - of the bottom 20 countries only 2 are not in Africa, of the bottom 30 only 3.

I think the only reasonable way to go for this quiz is by continent.

+5
Level 57
Mar 10, 2021
Bhutan and Nicaragua should change place
+6
Level 63
Mar 21, 2021
Nicaragua and Bhutan need to be swapped round as the HDI is the wrong way around
+1
Level 22
Apr 2, 2021
I thought the pacific island countries would be happy
+7
Level 86
Nov 3, 2022
Happy? Maybe.

Rich, long-lived, and well-educated? Not according to this quiz.

+3
Level 70
Nov 4, 2022
I expected to see Sri Lanka on there
+3
Level 62
Nov 13, 2022
PPP is such an absolute crock. Anyone who's been to a few of the countries on the list can see that at a glance. No idea why JetPunk uses such a subjective and limited measure as a factor in so many quizzes.
+2
Level 71
Dec 6, 2022
It's a bit sobering to realize that Pakistan now has a lower HDI than Syria. Also, surprised by no Iraq, although it seems that they're pretty close with an HDI of 0.686.
+1
Level 66
Feb 26, 2023
Spooky quiz, seeing countries like Bangladesh & Pakistan on it. It's unfortunate that providing accessible birth control to the people there isn't a frontline issue for organizations like the UN & WHO.

I'd have thought that countries in Oceania would have an easy time of life, doing business with any number of Occidental countries. I'm sure many would be willing to trade resources for their strategic locations. I don't know what the excuse is for not educating yourself when you live on an island with just 10,000 other people, and it's only a few miles long. Get on the internet & read. Seems like a situation where you'd have to try to fail.

I guess on the other side of things, surprisingly high-scoring countries, would be: Thailand, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Turkey, Mauritius, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Trinidad & Tobago, Panama, and Costa Rica. (wonder what causes the Mauritius & Trinidad outliers?)

+3
Level 85
Feb 26, 2023
Bangladesh has a better HDI score than Pakistan in part because of its emphasis on female literacy which indirectly helps improve birth control. Its birth rate is now below the replacement rate and half the level of Pakistan.
+1
Level 53
Feb 26, 2023
is Bahrain not filled with rich arabs
+2
Level 65
Mar 2, 2023
"Get on the internet & read." Sheesh, dude, calm down. And these "surprisingly high-scoring countries" could probably be not as surprising with some research.
+2
Level 44
Feb 26, 2023
re: "Get on the internet and read" comment. A person's environment is a huge indicator of personal opportunity.

Coming from intergenerational illiteracy, poverty, possible abuse/alcoholism, poor schools, lack of job opportunities and role models etc. does not mean "you'd have to try to fail". It means you can't see how to succeed.

+1
Level 85
Feb 26, 2023
Cultural attitudes are a barrier. New Zealand has been very effective in encouraging success among Pacific Island nations. New Zealand is the carrot while climate change is the whip. For many Pacific Islander youth, the motivation is to do well, get a scholarship to New Zealand and off the island before the ocean covers.
+1
Level 66
Feb 27, 2023
I've got as much respect for Tuvaluans as anyone else. I'm not going to deny them basic humanities like self-determination or control of their own actions. They're the same as you and me, I won't pity them.

Even if they tackled a small goal, like providing $10,000-15,000/year to each citizen, that'd only require $150m/year. Which I think is something like a $5b fund.

There's no excuse not to educate yourself.

+1
Level 78
Mar 21, 2023
I ended up getting them all for lack of choices, but certainly a lot of surprises for me.
+3
Level 74
Jun 21, 2023
I initially guessed North Korea, and while I recognize there is no HDI score for lack of information, I thought that it might actually have a decent HDI score. Wikipedia says the life expectancy is 73 years, which is above the world average, and from documentaries I've seen education is a priority in the country. Income might lose it points but I've always thought that North Korean income estimates are flawed because the country's economy is mostly internal and the North Korean Won isn't used in foreign trade and so is hard to calculate the value of. The internal economy also likely makes the cost of living cheaper so even if income is nominally low, in real terms it might be better. It's a shame that most people just think of the country as "evil scary bad guy nuke country" because it's a very interesting place, and that perspective makes it hard to investigate the reality when most of the information you can find easily in the media and online is sensationalized.
+1
Level 60
Nov 8, 2023
I missed Syria. Twice.