The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite metric used to rank countries based on their human development—a measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development. It encompasses aspects of longevity, education, and standard of living.
Normalization is a statistical method applied to HDI indicators to create a common scale. This allows for comparison across different data sets and is typically accomplished using the min-max method.
The normalized indices are aggregated, often using an arithmetic mean, to compute the HDI. This aggregation reflects equal weight for all dimensions, but alternative methods like the geometric mean can be used to address inequality.
Countries are ranked based on their HDI score, which reflects the average achievements in human development indicators. A higher score indicates a higher level of development and standard of living.