BARBADOS HAS SLIPPED almost 20 notches in the Human Development Index (HDI) standings in the last three years.
Analysis of the United Nations Development Project’s Human Development Report (HDR), which was launched at Hilton Barbados yesterday, showed that the once top-ranking developing nation was now positioned at 57 out of 188 countries and territories, compared to 38 out of 187 in 2012 when the report was last done.
But despite the plunge in the standings in the review period, the HDI value showed an increase of 17.2 per cent between 1980 and 2014 – an average annual increase of 0.47 per cent. This means that it remained fairly consistent with the annual average increase of 0.5 per cent between 1980 and 2012.
The executive summary of the report also noted that most CARICOM countries had a “negative evolution in the HDI ranking over the last five years”. (YB)
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