Taiwan would come in 22nd on the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Index and fourth on the Gender Inequality Index if the ROC were included in the survey, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said Nov. 21.
Given that Taiwan is not a member of the U.N., the DGBAS calculated the nation’s standings according to the methods used by the U.N., for comparison with the UNDP’s 2011 Human Development Report, which was unveiled Nov. 2.
In Asia, in terms of human development Taiwan trails only Japan and South Korea, ranked 12th and 15th out of 188 countries.
“Taiwan’s high ranking places us with other advanced nations in having ‘very high human development,’” the DGBAS said.
Of the 147 countries included on the GII, Taiwan trails only Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, the agency added. South Korea and Japan would be at No. 12 and No. 15, respectively, if Taiwan were included in the GII survey.
The UNDP launches the Human Development Report annually to explore the intersections between sustainable development and equity.
According to the UNDP website, the HDI is a way of “measuring development by combining indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income into a composite human development index.”
The website says the GII was introduced to “better expose differences in the distribution of achievements between women and men” by measuring women’s disadvantages in three dimensions—reproductive health, empowerment and the labor market. (THN)
Write to Rachel Chan at rachelchan@mail.gio.gov.tw