Nigeria’s Human Development Index rises by two points, life expectancy by eight years

A new report by the United Nations Development Programme has shown Nigeria’s Human Development Index rising by two points and life expectancy also rising by eight years.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the HDI report measured national achievements in Human Development Index in health, education and income/standard of living in 189 countries.

The report showed that Nigeria’s HDI value for 2017 was 0.532; it was 0.530 in 2016, and it has shown a consistent increase since the measurement began in 2003.

From that base year, when the HDI was estimated at 0.443, it has now increased to 0.532 in 2017, marking a 14.4 per cent over the period.

The country’s life expectancy at birth was also put at 53.9 years, while between 1990 and 2017, Nigeria’s life expectancy at birth has increased by eight years, the report showed.

But overall, Nigeria’s ranking was put at 157 among the 189 countries sampled, while the ranking was 156 in the previous year.

The other good news in the report showed that years of schooling increased by one year and expected years of schooling increased by 3.3 years.

Nigeria’s Gross National Income per capita increased by about 87.4 per cent between 1990 and 2017, the UNDP report showed.

The report put Nigeria’s population at 190.1 million in 2017, while the country’s projected population in 2030 is 264.1 million

The 20 countries with the lowest HDI – from 189 to 170 – are all African countries except Yemen, 178, while Niger, as it has for several years, ranked lowest at 189 (0.354).

Rwanda ranked the highest country in the world with the most women in parliament. The country has held the top spot since 2008 with women holding more than half the seats in the parliament.

(NAN)