List of African countries by Human Development Index

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a number from 0 to 1 (higher is better) used to compare different countries. It is published by United Nations Development Programme. It is used to rank countries into different groups for example developed and developing countries.

The Human Development Index uses different measurements of a population:

• Life expectancy at birth. This is used to see how healthy the people in one country are. It assumes that healthier people live longer on average.
• Literacy is used to look at how educated people are, for example how many adults can read and write. One third of this is the gross enrollment ratio, which measures how many of children of schooling age attend school.
• Standard of living. This is measured by calculating the gross domestic product with the total population so that it becomes comparable.

List of African countries

African countries by Human Development Index (2020 report, showing 2019 data)

≥ 0.900   0.850–0.899   0.800–0.849   0.750–0.799   0.700–0.749

0.650–0.699   0.600–0.649   0.550–0.599   0.500–0.549

0.450–0.499   0.400–0.449   ≤ 0.399   Data unavailable

This is a list of the Human Development Index (HDI) for countries in Africa from the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report for 2019, published in 2020.

List of African countries by Human Development Index
Africa rank	Global rank	Country	HDI value	Change in HDI value 2018–19
Very high human development
1	66	Mauritius	0.804	0.003
High human development
2	67	Seychelles	0.796	0.006
3	91	Algeria	0.748	0.002
4	95	Tunisia	0.740	0.002
5	100	Botswana	0.735	0.005
6	105	Libya	0.724	0.003
7	114	South Africa	0.709	0.002
8	116	Egypt	0.707	0.006
9	119	Gabon	0.703	0.006
Medium human development
10	121	Morocco	0.686	0.006
11	126	Cape Verde	0.665	0.002
12	130	Namibia	0.646	0.001
13	135	São Tomé and Príncipe	0.625	0.001
14	138	Eswatini	0.545	0.006
15	138	Ghana	0.611	0.005
16	143	Kenya	0.545	0.006
17	145	Equatorial Guinea	0.592	0.010
18	146	Zambia	0.545	0.002
19	148	Angola	0.545	0.001
20	149	Republic of the Congo	0.545	0.001
21	150	Zimbabwe	0.545	0.002
22	153	Cameroon	0.545	0.003
23	156	Comoros	0.554	0.002
Low human development
24	157	Mauritania	0.546	0.004
25	158	Benin	0.545	0.004
26	159	Uganda	0.544	0.006
27	160	Rwanda	0.543	0.003
28	161	Nigeria	0.539	0.005
29	162	Ivory Coast	0.538	0.004
30	163	Tanzania	0.529	0.005
31	164	Madagascar	0.528	0.001
32	165	Lesotho	0.527	0.005
33	166	Djibouti	0.524	0.006
34	167	Togo	0.515	0.005
35	168	Senegal	0.512	0.004
36	170	Sudan	0.510	0.004
37	172	Gambia	0.496	0.009
38	173	Ethiopia	0.485	0.007
39	174	Malawi	0.483	0.005
40	175	Liberia	0.480	0.000
41	175	Guinea-Bissau	0.480	0.008
42	175	Democratic Republic of the Congo	0.480	0.002
43	178	Guinea	0.477	0.004
44	180	Eritrea	0.459	0.003
45	181	Mozambique	0.456	0.004
46	182	Sierra Leone	0.452	0.005
47	182	Burkina Faso	0.452	0.009
48	184	Mali	0.434	0.003
49	185	Burundi	0.433	0.002
50	185	South Sudan	0.433	0.004
51	187	Chad	0.398	0.001
52	188	Central African Republic	0.397	0.002
53	189	Niger	0.394	0.003

Related pages

• List of countries by Human Development Index