Bangladesh goes up 3 notches in Human Development Index

Bangladesh moved up three spots and ranked 139 out of 188 countries in the Global Human Development Index, according to Human Development Report (HDR) 2016 that was released in Dhaka today.

“Bangladesh has shown tremendous progress in human development over the last two decades. Our average annual growth of HDI is better than any other countries in South Asia,” Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said at the launching of the report at the NEC Conference Room of planning ministry.

“Our social indicators show that we are doing better in health, education, life expectancy at birth while our per capita income is increasing,” he said.

The General Economics Division of Planning Commission and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bangladesh jointly organised the launching of HDR 2016 in Dhaka following the global launch in Stockholm, Sweden less than two weeks ago.

Bangladesh maintained a higher average annual HDI growth rate, 1.64 percent, during 1990-2015, compared to all other South Asian countries including India (1.52 percent), according to the report.

Bangladesh ranked fifth in South Asia, falling behind Sri Lanka (73), the Maldives (105), India (131) and Bhutan (132).

Norway topped the list while Central African Republic rests at the bottom.

Selim Jahan, director, Human Development Report Office of the UNDP, and the lead author of HDR 2016, made a presentation on the key findings of the report.