thumb|right|400px|World map indicating the Human Development Index (based on 2007 data, published on October 5, 2009)

[[:File:UN Human Development Report 2007 (2) CBC.svg|(Color-blind compliant map) For red-green color vision problems (2007).]]

This is a list of all countries by Human Development Index as included in a United Nations Development Program's Human Development Report released on October 5, 2009, compiled on the basis of data from 2007. It covers 180 UN member states (out of 192), along with: Hong Kong (SAR of China) and PA-governed territories. Twelve UN member states are not included due to lack of data. The average HDI of regions of the World and groups of countries are also included for comparison.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, a developing or an under-developed country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. The index was developed in 1990 by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian economist Amartya Sen.

Countries fall into four broad categories based on their HDI: very high (added in the report for 2007), high (split in the same report), medium and low human development. Starting in the report for 2007, the first category is referred as developed countries, and the last three are all grouped in developing countries.

Some older groupings (high/medium/low income countries) have been removed that were based on the gross national income (GNI) in purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita, and have been replaced by another index based on the gross domestic product (GDP) in purchasing power parity per capita.

Above 0.9 is very high. Between 0.8 and 0.9 is high. Between 0.5 and 0.8 is medium. Below 0.5 is low.

Complete list of countries

• = increase.

• = steady.

• = decrease.

• Similar HDI values in the current list do not lead to ranking ties, since the HDI rank is actually determined using HDI values to the sixth decimal point.

• The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed (up or down) since the 2005 survey.

Note: This revision of the index was released on December 18, 2008. This so-called "statistical update" covers the period up to 2006 and was published without an accompanying report on human development. The update is relevant due to newly released estimates of purchasing power parities (PPP), implying substantial adjustments for many countries, resulting in changes in HDI values and, in many cases, HDI ranks.

Very high human development (developed countries)

High human development (developing countries)

Medium human development (developing countries)

Low human development (least developed countries)

List of countries by continents

Africa

10 highest HDIs
10 lowest HDIs

Americas

10 highest HDIs
10 lowest HDIs

Asia & Oceania

10 highest HDIs
10 lowest HDIs

Europe

10 highest HDIs
10 lowest HDIs

HDI by regions & groups

Countries missing from latest report

UN member states (latest UNDP data)

Non-UN members (not calculated by the UNDP)