In 2021, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Minnesota had the highest Human Development Index (HDI) score of any other states at 0.95. Many more states had a score just below this at 0.94. Mississippi had the lowest HDI score at 0.87, and the U.S. average was 0.92.

Switzerland had the highest level of the Human Development Index (HDI) worldwide in 2022 with a value of 0.967. With a score of 0.966, Norway followed closely behind Switzerland and had the second highest level of human development in that year. The rise of the Asian tigers In the decades after the Cold War, the four so-called Asian tigers, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong (now a Special Administrative Region of China) experienced rapid economic growth and increasing human development. At number four and number nine of the HDI, respectively, Hong Kong and Singapore are the only Asian locations within the top 10 highest HDI scores. Both locations have experienced tremendous economic growth since the 1980’s and 1990’s. In 1980, the per capita GDP of Hong Kong was 5,703 U.S. dollars, increasing throughout the decades until reaching 50,029 in 2023, which is expected to continue to increase in the future. Meanwhile, in 1989, Singapore had a GDP of nearly 31 billion U.S. dollars, which has risen to nearly 501 billion U.S. dollars today and is also expected to keep increasing. Growth of the UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the only Middle Eastern country besides Israel within the highest ranking HDI scores globally. Within the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, the UAE has the third largest GDP behind Saudi Arabia and Israel, reaching nearly 507 billion U.S. dollars by 2022. Per capita, the UAE GDP was around 21,142 U.S. dollars in 1989, and has nearly doubled to 43,438 U.S. dollars by 2021. Moreover, this is expected to reach over 67,538 U.S. dollars by 2029. On top of being a major oil producer, the UAE has become a hub for finance and business and attracts millions of tourists annually.

The aim of the Human Development Report is to stimulate global, regional and national policy-relevant discussions on issues pertinent to human development. Accordingly, the data in the Report require the highest standards of data quality, consistency, international comparability and transparency. The Human Development Report Office (HDRO) fully subscribes to the Principles governing international statistical activities.

The HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. The HDI can also be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with different human development outcomes. These contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities. The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions.

The 2019 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) data shed light on the number of people experiencing poverty at regional, national and subnational levels, and reveal inequalities across countries and among the poor themselves.Jointly developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at the University of Oxford, the 2019 global MPI offers data for 101 countries, covering 76 percent of the global population. The MPI provides a comprehensive and in-depth picture of global poverty – in all its dimensions – and monitors progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 1 – to end poverty in all its forms. It also provides policymakers with the data to respond to the call of Target 1.2, which is to ‘reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definition'.

In 2023 Zurich was both the leading smart city based on the IMD smart city index as well as the city with the highest human development index score, making it one of the premier places on earth to live in. Notable exceptions to the HDI to IMD index score were Beijing, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. Beijing is a notable outlier because although it ranked 12th on the digital smart cities ranking it was nearly 90 points lower than Zurich on the HDI score. This is compared to Munich, Germany, which was the 20th digital city but had a HDI score of 950.

Smart tech is watching.

CCTV cameras powered by artificial intelligence have become a significant growing market in the modern city. These are predominantly residential, with half the market catering to residential applications of CCTV cameras. However, commercial and business-related CCTV cameras have also seen significant growth, with the market reaching over 800 million U.S. dollars in 2023.

Digital cities need data and data needs infrastructure.

The leading issue with AI infrastructure is data management. AI is a strong influence on how digital cities work and requires a considerable amount of infrastructure to be effective. Storage of AI software is a minor concern, accounting for less than ten percent of challenges globally in 2023.

Ranked bottom and top five states, HLI, 2016.

Cost estimates for national and three regions using the detailed reference method (US$).

State-wise social indices of religion, caste, and domicile.

In 2023, Switzerland led the ranking of countries with the highest average wealth per adult, with approximately 709,600 U.S. dollars per person. Luxembourg was ranked second with an average wealth of around 607,500 U.S. dollars per adult, followed by Hong Kong SAR. However, the figures do not show the actual distribution of wealth. The Gini index shows wealth disparities in countries worldwide. Does wealth guarantee a longer life? As the old adage goes “money can’t buy you happiness”, yet wealth and income are continuously correlated to the quality of life of individuals in different countries around the world. While greater levels of wealth may not guarantee a higher quality life, it certainly increases an individual’s chances of having a longer one. Although they do not show the whole picture, life expectancy at birth is higher in the more wealthier world regions. Does money bring happiness? A number of the world’s happiest nations also feature in the list of those countries for which average income was highest. Finland, however, which was the happiest country worldwide in 2022, is missing in the list of top twenty countries with the highest wealth per adult. As such, the explanation for this may be the fact that the larger proportion of the population has access to a high income relative to global levels. Measures of quality of life Criticism of the use of income or wealth as a proxy for quality of life led to the creation of the United Nations’ Human Development Index. Although income is included within the index, it also has other factors taken into account such as health and education. As such, the countries with the highest human development index can be correlated to those with the highest income levels. That said, none of the above measures seek to assess the physical and mental environmental impact of a high quality of life sourced through high incomes. The happy planet index demonstrates that the inclusion of experienced well-being and ecological footprint in place of income and other proxies for quality of life results in many of the world’s materially poorer nations being included in the happiest.

Introduction

This study reproduces the results of the article Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic development and gender equality (DOI: 10.1126/science.aas9899) and partially its supplementary material.

The code for the analysis can be found at the following GitHub page: https://github.com/scerioli/Global-Preferences-Survey

Preparation of the data

Data Collection, Cleaning, and Standardization

The data used in the Falk & Hermle 2018 is not fully available because of two reasons:

1. Data paywall: Some part of the data is not available for free. It requires to pay a fee to the Gallup to access them. This is the case for the additional data set that is used in the article, for instance, the one that contains the education level and the household income quintile. Check the website of the briq - Institute on Behavior & Inequality for more information on it.

2. Data used in study is not available online: This is what happened for the LogGDP p/c calculated in 2005 US dollars (which is not directly available online). We decided to calculate the LogGDP p/c in 2010 US dollars because it was easily available, which should not change the main findings of the article.

Global Preferences Survey

This data is protected by copyright and cannot be given to third parties.

To download the GPS data set, go to the website of the Global Preferences Survey in the section "downloads". There, choose the "Dataset" form and after filling it, we can download the data set.

Hint: The organisation can be also "private".

The following two relevant papers have to be also cited in all publications that make use of or refer in any kind to GPS dataset:

• Falk, A., Becker, A., Dohmen, T., Enke, B., Huffman, D., & Sunde, U. (2018). Global evidence on economic preferences. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 133 (4), 1645–1692.

• Falk, A., Becker, A., Dohmen, T. J., Huffman, D., & Sunde, U. (2016). The preference survey module: A validated instrument for measuring risk, time, and social preferences. IZA Discussion Paper No. 9674.

GDP per capita

From the website of the World Bank, one can access the data about the GDP per capita on a certain set of years. We took the GDP per capita (constant 2010 US$), made an average of the data from 2003 until 2012 for all the available countries, and matched the names of the countries with the ones from the GPS data set.

Gender Equality Index

The Gender Equality Index is composed of four main data sets.

• Time since women’s suffrage: Taken from the Inter-Parliamentary Union Website. We prepared the data in the following way. For several countries more than one date where provided (for example, the right to be elected and the right to vote). We use the last date when both vote and stand for election right were granted, with no other restrictions commented. Some counties were a colony or within union of the countries (for instance, Kazakhstan in Soviet Union). For these countries, the rights to vote and be elected might be technically granted two times within union and as independent state. In this case we kept the first date. It was difficult to decide on South Africa because its history shows the racism part very entangled with women's rights. We kept the latest date when also Black women could vote. For Nigeria, considered the distinctions between North and South, we decided to keep only the North data because, again, it was showing the completeness of the country and it was the last date. Note: USA data doesn't take into account that also up to 1964 black women couldn't vote (in general, Blacks couldn't vote up to that year). We didn’t keep this date, because it was not explicitly mentioned in the original data set. This is in contrast with other choices made, but it is important to reproduce exactly the results of the publication, and the USA is often easy to spot on the plots.

• UN Gender Inequality Index: Taken from the Human Development Report 2015. We kept only the table called "Gender Inequality Index".

• WEF Global Gender Gap: WEF Global Gender Gap Index Taken from the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2015. For countries where data were missing, data was added from the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2006. We modified some of the country names directly in the csv file, that is why we provide it as an input file.

• Ratio of female and male labour force participation: Average International Labour Organization estimates from 2003 to 2012 taken from the World Bank database (http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FM.ZS). Values were inverted to create an index of equality. We took the average for the period between 2004 and 2013.

In our extended analysis, we also involved the following index:

• United Nations Development Programme Gender Development Index taken from Human Development Reports 2020. Note that we have downloaded the two tables of the Human Development Index for males and females, and used the ratio of the two as a GDI index, as described in the report.

In 2025, Luxembourg was the country with the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. Of the 20 listed countries, 13 are in Europe and four are in Asia, alongside the U.S., Canada, and Australia. There are no African or Latin American countries among the top 20. Correlation with high living standards While GDP is a useful indicator for measuring the size or strength of an economy, GDP per capita is much more reflective of living standards. For example, when compared to life expectancy or indices such as the Human Development Index or the World Happiness Report, there is a strong overlap - 14 of the 20 countries on this list are also ranked among the 20 happiest countries in 2024, and all 20 have "very high" HDIs. Misleading metrics? GDP per capita figures, however, can be misleading, and to paint a fuller picture of a country's living standards then one must look at multiple metrics. GDP per capita figures can be skewed by inequalities in wealth distribution, and in countries such as those in the Middle East, a relatively large share of the population lives in poverty while a smaller number live affluent lifestyles.

Based on the degree of inequality in income distribution measured by the Gini coefficient, Brazil was the most unequal country in Latin America as of 2022. Brazil's Gini coefficient amounted to 52.9. Dominican Republic recorded the lowest Gini coefficient at 38.5, even below Uruguay and Chile, which are some of the countries with the highest human development indexes in Latin America.

The Gini coefficient explained The Gini coefficient measures the deviation of the distribution of income among individuals or households in a given country from a perfectly equal distribution. A value of 0 represents absolute equality, whereas 100 would be the highest possible degree of inequality. This measurement reflects the degree of wealth inequality at a certain moment in time, though it may fail to capture how average levels of income improve or worsen over time.

What affects the Gini coefficient in Latin America? Latin America, as other developing regions in the world, generally records high rates of inequality, with a Gini coefficient ranging between 38 and 54 points according to the latest available data from the reporting period 2010-2021. According to the Human Development Report, wealth redistribution by means of tax transfers improves Latin America's Gini coefficient to a lesser degree than it does in advanced economies. Wider access to education and health services, on the other hand, have been proven to have a greater direct effect in improving Gini coefficient measurements in the region.

The statistic shows the gross domestic product (GDP) in Canada from 1987 to 2023, with projections up until 2029. In 2023, the gross domestic product in Canada was around 2.14 trillion U.S. dollars.

The economy of Canada

Canada is the second biggest country in the world after Russia and the biggest country in North America. Despite its large size, Canada has a relatively small population of just around 35.9 million people. However, the total population in Canada is estimated to grow to around 37.5 million inhabitants in 2020. The standard of living in the country is pretty high, the life expectancy as of 2013 in Canada ranks as one of the highest in the world. In addition, the country ranks number eight on the Human Development Index (HDI) worldwide.

All key factors point to a stable and sustainable economy. Not only is Canada’s population increasing, but the economy has been slowly recovering after the global financial crisis in 2008. The unemployment rate in Canada in 2010 was at approximately 8 percent (263696). Today, the unemployment rate in Canada is estimated to be around 6.8 percent, and it is estimated to decrease further. During the financial crisis in 2008, Canada's inflation rate amounted to around 2.4 percent. By 2013, the inflation rate was at less than 1 percent in comparison to the previous year.

Canada is considered to be one of the world’s wealthiest countries. By value of private financial wealth, Canada ranked seventh along with Italy. In addition, its gross domestic product per capita in 2014 was among the largest in the world and during the same year, its gross domestic product increased by over 2.5 percent in comparison to the previous year. Canada’s economic growth has been a result of its political stability and economic reforms following the global financial crisis. In the period between 2009 and 2010, Canada was among the leading countries with the highest political stability in the world.

The gross national income (GNI) in Afghanistan in 2019 was 819 U.S. dollars for females, compared to about 3.6 thousand U.S. dollars for males. The expected years at birth was the largest contributor to the Human Development Index (HDI) score of Afghanistan in 2019.

The gross national income (GNI) in Afghanistan in 2019 was 2.2 thousand U.S. dollars, which was an increase compared to 0.9 thousand U.S. dollars in 2000. The expected years at birth was the largest contributor to the Human Development Index (HDI) score of Afghanistan in 2019.

Between 2010 and 2022, Haiti's data on the degree of inequality in income distribution based on the Gini coefficient reached 41.1, same as the previous period. Although having one of the lowest human development indexes in Latin America, Haiti's Gini coefficient was deemed as one of the most equal countries in Latin America.

The Gini coefficient measures the deviation of the distribution of income (or consumption) among individuals or households in a given country from a perfectly equal distribution. A value of 0 represents absolute equality, whereas 100 would be the highest possible degree of inequality.

Between 2010 and 2022, Chile's data on the degree of inequality in income distribution based on the Gini coefficient reached 44.9. Although having one of the highest human development indexes in Latin America, Chile's Gini coefficient was still higher than countries like Haiti and El Salvador. Nevertheless, income distribution in this South American country has shown signs of improvement, with the Gini coefficient decreasing in recent periods.

The Gini coefficient measures the deviation of the distribution of income (or consumption) among individuals or households in a given country from a perfectly equal distribution. A value of 0 represents absolute equality, whereas 100 would be the highest possible degree of inequality.

Nach letzten verfügbaren Daten (Stand 2025) waren das britische Überseegebiet Bermuda, Liechtenstein und Norwegen die Länder mit dem weltweit höchsten Bruttonationaleinkommen (BNE) pro Kopf. Auf Bermuda lag das BNE pro Kopf bei rund 130.000 US-Dollar. Am niedrigsten war das BNE pro Kopf im Jahr 2023 in Burundi (230 US-Dollar) und Afghanistan (380 US-Dollar). Die reichsten und die ärmsten Staaten der Erde Eine der wichtigsten Kennzahlen, die den Reichtum eines Landes beschreibt, ist das Pro-Kopf-Einkommen (PKE): Zu seiner Berechnung wird eine Sozialproduktgröße, zum Beispiel das Bruttonationaleinkommen (BNE) oder das Bruttoinlandsprodukt, durch die Bevölkerungsgröße eines Landes geteilt. Da das BNE in fast allen Ländern erhoben wird, eignet es sich gut als Basis. Entsprechend wird das BNE häufig verwendet, um Länder nach wirtschaftlichem Reichtum beziehungsweise wirtschaftlicher Armut zu ranken. Weil in ärmeren Ländern die Lebenskosten oft niedriger sind, ist aber auch die Berücksichtigung der Kaufkraft wichtig. Die Weltbank berechnet deshalb das Pro-Kopf-Einkommen auch auf Basis von Kaufkraftparitäten. Dabei werden etwa unterschiedliche Lohn- oder Mietniveaus berücksichtigt. Human Development Index - Index der menschlichen Entwicklung Allerdings sagt auch das kaufkraftbereinigte Pro-Kopf-Einkommen eher wenig über den gesellschaftlichen Wohlstand eines Landes aus. Ein Land kann ein sehr hohes PKI aufweisen, obwohl die Lebensqualität für viele Menschen miserabel ist. Das Entwicklungsprogramm der Vereinten Nationen (UNDP) hat daher den Human Development Index (HDI) entwickelt. Dieser wird jährlich ermittelt, um den Entwicklungsstand von Ländern in mehreren Dimensionen zu erfassen: Er berechnet sich aus den Indizes der drei Variablen Kaufkraft des Pro-Kopf-Einkommens, Lebenserwartung bei Geburt und Bildungsqualität. Der HDI ist inzwischen zur gängigsten internationalen Messzahl für den Entwicklungsstand eines Landes geworden. Aktuell wird der HDI von der Schweiz angeführt.