Korea falls one spot to 20th in UN's Human Development Index

Korea came in 20th in the United Nations Development Programme's 2025 Human Development Index, standing at 0.937.

Fans cheer during a KBO League game between the Lotte Giants and the LG Twins at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Songpa District, southern Seoul, on March 23. [NEWS1]

Korea ranked 20th in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) 2025 Human Development Index (HDI), falling one notch from the previous year despite a slight improvement in its score.

Korea’s HDI for 2023 stood at 0.937, placing it 20th among 193 countries and territories surveyed, according to the UNDP report released on Tuesday. The index was up from 0.928 the year before, when Korea ranked 19th.

Korea’s HDI has shown consistent growth since 1990, when it came in at 0.738. The country has remained in the top tier in recent years, peaking at 12th place in 2010 and 2012.

The HDI is a composite index measuring average achievement in four dimensions of human development: life expectancy, expected years of schooling, mean years of schooling and gross national income (GNI) per capita.

Koreans had a life expectancy of 84.33 years in 2023. The expected years of schooling and mean years of schooling were 16.62 and 12.72 years, respectively. Korea’s GNI per capita, adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), was $49,726.

Iceland topped the HDI rankings with a score of 0.972 as of 2023, despite a life expectancy 1.64 years shorter than Korea’s. However, Icelanders had 2.23 more years of expected schooling and 1.19 more years of average schooling. Iceland’s GNI per capita was $69,117.

Following Iceland were Norway and Switzerland, both at 0.97, Denmark at 0.962, Germany and Sweden, both at 0.959, Australia at 0.958, Hong Kong and the Netherlands, both at 0.955 and Belgium at 0.951, rounding out the top 10.

Japan rose one spot to 23rd with a score of 0.925. China dropped three places to 78th, scoring 0.797.

South Sudan, mired in civil conflict, ranked last with an HDI of 0.388. Somalia at 0.404, the Central African Republic at 0.414 and Chad at 0.416 also remained among the lowest-ranked countries.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff. BY JEONG JAE-HONG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]