Why does the UK score very low on the HDI?
Referring to wikipedia, the UK is in 27th place on the HDI, which is below Slovenia and marginally above the Czech Republic. This is very surprising given that it was the UK that conquered much of the world through its empire. Has the days of 'Great Britain' diminished as income inequality, poverty, and slack education standards leave an indelible impression among foreigners, who see the UK as an easy ride?
The UK has been plummeting down the HDI year by year. What are the other causes for this? Is it our government's fault, our fault or population demographics, in particular a high population to resource disparity, which is out of our control entirely. Who will be to blame when the UK ranks last on the highly developed nations list? The UK falls short compared to our Scandinavian neighbours. Norway comes in at first place, no surprises there as their healthcare system is world class.
Some analysis: In 2008, the UK's HDI was measured at 0.947. Compare this to 2013's value of 0.875 and that's a 0.072 decrease! For a country to meet the highly developed criteria, it must score above 0.800 on the HDI. If current trends continue, then by 2020, the UK could no longer be a highly developed country, which looking around at society, isn't particularly surprising.
The best advice I could give to graduates would involve them leaving the UK behind and setting their sites on one of the Scandinavian countries or Canada because sadly, the era of Great Britain has ended and now we're moving into an era in which the UK's HDI will mirror such countries as Belarus, Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico. There is nothing wrong with those countries but given that the UK is considered a major global influence, one would expect its HDI to reflect this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
The UK has been plummeting down the HDI year by year. What are the other causes for this? Is it our government's fault, our fault or population demographics, in particular a high population to resource disparity, which is out of our control entirely. Who will be to blame when the UK ranks last on the highly developed nations list? The UK falls short compared to our Scandinavian neighbours. Norway comes in at first place, no surprises there as their healthcare system is world class.
Some analysis: In 2008, the UK's HDI was measured at 0.947. Compare this to 2013's value of 0.875 and that's a 0.072 decrease! For a country to meet the highly developed criteria, it must score above 0.800 on the HDI. If current trends continue, then by 2020, the UK could no longer be a highly developed country, which looking around at society, isn't particularly surprising.
The best advice I could give to graduates would involve them leaving the UK behind and setting their sites on one of the Scandinavian countries or Canada because sadly, the era of Great Britain has ended and now we're moving into an era in which the UK's HDI will mirror such countries as Belarus, Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico. There is nothing wrong with those countries but given that the UK is considered a major global influence, one would expect its HDI to reflect this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
(edited 10 years ago)
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Original post by Gondur
Referring to wikipedia, the UK is in 27th place on the HDI, which is below Slovenia and marginally above the Czech Republic. This is very surprising given that it was the UK that conquered much of the world through its empire. Has the days of 'Great Britain' diminished as income inequality, poverty, and slack education standards leave an indelible impression among foreigners, who see the UK as an easy ride?
The UK has been plummeting down the HDI year by year. What are the other causes for this? Is it our government's fault, our fault or population demographics, in particular a high population to resource disparity, which is out of our control entirely. Who will be to blame when the UK ranks last on the highly developed nations list? The UK falls short compared to our Scandinavian neighbours. Norway comes in at first place, no surprises there as their healthcare system is world class.
Some analysis: In 2008, the UK's HDI was measured at 0.947. Compare this to 2013's value of 0.875 and that's a 0.072 decrease! For a country to meet the highly developed criteria, it must score above 0.800 on the HDI. If current trends continue, then by 2020, the UK could no longer be a highly developed country, which looking around at society, isn't particularly surprising.
The best advice I could give to graduates would involve them leaving the UK behind and setting their sites on one of the Scandinavian countries or Canada because sadly, the era of Great Britain has ended and now we're moving into an era in which the UK's HDI will mirror such countries as Belarus, Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico. There is nothing wrong with those countries but given that the UK is considered a major global influence, one would expect its HDI to reflect this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
The UK has been plummeting down the HDI year by year. What are the other causes for this? Is it our government's fault, our fault or population demographics, in particular a high population to resource disparity, which is out of our control entirely. Who will be to blame when the UK ranks last on the highly developed nations list? The UK falls short compared to our Scandinavian neighbours. Norway comes in at first place, no surprises there as their healthcare system is world class.
Some analysis: In 2008, the UK's HDI was measured at 0.947. Compare this to 2013's value of 0.875 and that's a 0.072 decrease! For a country to meet the highly developed criteria, it must score above 0.800 on the HDI. If current trends continue, then by 2020, the UK could no longer be a highly developed country, which looking around at society, isn't particularly surprising.
The best advice I could give to graduates would involve them leaving the UK behind and setting their sites on one of the Scandinavian countries or Canada because sadly, the era of Great Britain has ended and now we're moving into an era in which the UK's HDI will mirror such countries as Belarus, Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico. There is nothing wrong with those countries but given that the UK is considered a major global influence, one would expect its HDI to reflect this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
I honestly can't say i care about the HDI rating, economically we're pretty good and that's good enough for me.
Original post by Rakas21
I honestly can't say i care about the HDI rating, economically we're pretty good and that's good enough for me.
I don't agree with you there. I think you're trying to sweep the UK's problems under the carpet, when they are in fact, too big to do so. I also think that a lot of people on this forum are biased when talking about the UK. A lot of people will happily talk about the UK's strengths, almost in a tone of patriotism, yet dismiss its weaknesses as you're doing. The UK is only going to get worse if we sit back and mumble 'we're doing pretty good, not quite as good as Mexico but at least 5 out of 30 of our pupils can write their own name, which is good considering only 1 person out of 100 can do just that in Ethiopia'.
(edited 10 years ago)
Because we have a large underclass that we like to pretend don't exist until we need someone to blame something on.
Original post by Gondur
I don't agree with you there. I think you're trying to sweep the UK's problems under the carpet, when they are in fact, too big to do so. I also think that a lot of people on this forum are biased when talking about the UK. A lot of people will happily talk about the UK's strengths, almost in a tone of patriotism, yet dismiss its weaknesses as you're doing. The UK is only going to get worse if we sit back and mumble 'we're doing pretty good, not quite as good as Mexico but at least 5 out of 30 of our pupils can write their own name, which is good considering only 1 person out of 100 can do just that in Ethiopia'.
I'd disagree. It's not a national trait to be positive about this country. Its normal to automatically claim it's s**t and claim that country X is far superior.
I've lived abroad and realise just how lucky we are.
Personally for me, a lot of the issues with HDI seem to be related to a handful if incredibly wealthy business people worth Billions relocating to London skewing the numbers.
Original post by DaveSmith99
Because we have a large underclass that we like to pretend don't exist until we need someone to blame something on.
We have some if the most lucrative benefits packages in the world.
Do you think that there maybe a link between that and a large underclass? After all, why bother improving your lot in life if there's no need.
Original post by MatureStudent36
We have some if the most lucrative benefits packages in the world.
Do you think that there maybe a link between that and a large underclass? After all, why bother improving your lot in life if there's no need.
Do you think that there maybe a link between that and a large underclass? After all, why bother improving your lot in life if there's no need.
Living on benefits isn't the wonderful party that the dailymail would have you believe. Also most people in poverty in this country are in work.
i think you fail to grasp what hdi means/its relevancy
The wikipedia link gives full methodology so I dare say you could go through the calculations and work out exactly why. The component that the UK does worst on is education index: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Index.
I'm a bit sceptical of ranking indexes which include no error terms. Presumably there is some uncertainty in the measures and this should be reflected e.g. with error bars. It may turn out that UK and Slovenia are not distinguishable statistically.
Also, take a look at the inequality adjusted HDI - Britain actually gets higher ranking (although a lower absolute score), which surprises me given how unequal we are. But watch how USA tumbles from 3rd to 16th in 2013.
I'm a bit sceptical of ranking indexes which include no error terms. Presumably there is some uncertainty in the measures and this should be reflected e.g. with error bars. It may turn out that UK and Slovenia are not distinguishable statistically.
Also, take a look at the inequality adjusted HDI - Britain actually gets higher ranking (although a lower absolute score), which surprises me given how unequal we are. But watch how USA tumbles from 3rd to 16th in 2013.
Original post by Rakas21
I honestly can't say i care about the HDI rating, economically we're pretty good and that's good enough for me.
The way that it is calculated was changed from 2010
Original post by Gondur
Referring to wikipedia, the UK is in 27th place on the HDI, which is below Slovenia and marginally above the Czech Republic. This is very surprising given that it was the UK that conquered much of the world through its empire. Has the days of 'Great Britain' diminished as income inequality, poverty, and slack education standards leave an indelible impression among foreigners, who see the UK as an easy ride?
The UK has been plummeting down the HDI year by year. What are the other causes for this? Is it our government's fault, our fault or population demographics, in particular a high population to resource disparity, which is out of our control entirely. Who will be to blame when the UK ranks last on the highly developed nations list? The UK falls short compared to our Scandinavian neighbours. Norway comes in at first place, no surprises there as their healthcare system is world class.
Some analysis: In 2008, the UK's HDI was measured at 0.947. Compare this to 2013's value of 0.875 and that's a 0.072 decrease! For a country to meet the highly developed criteria, it must score above 0.800 on the HDI. If current trends continue, then by 2020, the UK could no longer be a highly developed country, which looking around at society, isn't particularly surprising.
The best advice I could give to graduates would involve them leaving the UK behind and setting their sites on one of the Scandinavian countries or Canada because sadly, the era of Great Britain has ended and now we're moving into an era in which the UK's HDI will mirror such countries as Belarus, Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico. There is nothing wrong with those countries but given that the UK is considered a major global influence, one would expect its HDI to reflect this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
The UK has been plummeting down the HDI year by year. What are the other causes for this? Is it our government's fault, our fault or population demographics, in particular a high population to resource disparity, which is out of our control entirely. Who will be to blame when the UK ranks last on the highly developed nations list? The UK falls short compared to our Scandinavian neighbours. Norway comes in at first place, no surprises there as their healthcare system is world class.
Some analysis: In 2008, the UK's HDI was measured at 0.947. Compare this to 2013's value of 0.875 and that's a 0.072 decrease! For a country to meet the highly developed criteria, it must score above 0.800 on the HDI. If current trends continue, then by 2020, the UK could no longer be a highly developed country, which looking around at society, isn't particularly surprising.
The best advice I could give to graduates would involve them leaving the UK behind and setting their sites on one of the Scandinavian countries or Canada because sadly, the era of Great Britain has ended and now we're moving into an era in which the UK's HDI will mirror such countries as Belarus, Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico. There is nothing wrong with those countries but given that the UK is considered a major global influence, one would expect its HDI to reflect this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
I'd be careful comparing pre-2010 figures with post-2010 figures, they changed how it was calculated then. (They swapped out a measure of quality of education for a quantitative approach which counts how long people spend at school rather than if they learn anything)
Original post by chazwomaq
The wikipedia link gives full methodology so I dare say you could go through the calculations and work out exactly why. The component that the UK does worst on is education index: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Index.
I'm a bit sceptical of ranking indexes which include no error terms. Presumably there is some uncertainty in the measures and this should be reflected e.g. with error bars. It may turn out that UK and Slovenia are not distinguishable statistically.
Also, take a look at the inequality adjusted HDI - Britain actually gets higher ranking (although a lower absolute score), which surprises me given how unequal we are. But watch how USA tumbles from 3rd to 16th in 2013.
I'm a bit sceptical of ranking indexes which include no error terms. Presumably there is some uncertainty in the measures and this should be reflected e.g. with error bars. It may turn out that UK and Slovenia are not distinguishable statistically.
Also, take a look at the inequality adjusted HDI - Britain actually gets higher ranking (although a lower absolute score), which surprises me given how unequal we are. But watch how USA tumbles from 3rd to 16th in 2013.
I'd also be sceptical of a ranking system which doesn't take results into account in any way. A kid who is held back a year and still fails is better educated than a kid who gets straight A*s by this measure.
Original post by Gondur
Referring to wikipedia, the UK is in 27th place on the HDI, which is below Slovenia and marginally above the Czech Republic. This is very surprising given that it was the UK that conquered much of the world through its empire. Has the days of 'Great Britain' diminished as income inequality, poverty, and slack education standards leave an indelible impression among foreigners, who see the UK as an easy ride?
The UK has been plummeting down the HDI year by year. What are the other causes for this? Is it our government's fault, our fault or population demographics, in particular a high population to resource disparity, which is out of our control entirely. Who will be to blame when the UK ranks last on the highly developed nations list? The UK falls short compared to our Scandinavian neighbours. Norway comes in at first place, no surprises there as their healthcare system is world class.
Some analysis: In 2008, the UK's HDI was measured at 0.947. Compare this to 2013's value of 0.875 and that's a 0.072 decrease! For a country to meet the highly developed criteria, it must score above 0.800 on the HDI. If current trends continue, then by 2020, the UK could no longer be a highly developed country, which looking around at society, isn't particularly surprising.
The best advice I could give to graduates would involve them leaving the UK behind and setting their sites on one of the Scandinavian countries or Canada because sadly, the era of Great Britain has ended and now we're moving into an era in which the UK's HDI will mirror such countries as Belarus, Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico. There is nothing wrong with those countries but given that the UK is considered a major global influence, one would expect its HDI to reflect this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
The UK has been plummeting down the HDI year by year. What are the other causes for this? Is it our government's fault, our fault or population demographics, in particular a high population to resource disparity, which is out of our control entirely. Who will be to blame when the UK ranks last on the highly developed nations list? The UK falls short compared to our Scandinavian neighbours. Norway comes in at first place, no surprises there as their healthcare system is world class.
Some analysis: In 2008, the UK's HDI was measured at 0.947. Compare this to 2013's value of 0.875 and that's a 0.072 decrease! For a country to meet the highly developed criteria, it must score above 0.800 on the HDI. If current trends continue, then by 2020, the UK could no longer be a highly developed country, which looking around at society, isn't particularly surprising.
The best advice I could give to graduates would involve them leaving the UK behind and setting their sites on one of the Scandinavian countries or Canada because sadly, the era of Great Britain has ended and now we're moving into an era in which the UK's HDI will mirror such countries as Belarus, Bahamas, Cuba and Mexico. There is nothing wrong with those countries but given that the UK is considered a major global influence, one would expect its HDI to reflect this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Development_Index
It is mainly due to the fact the UK is one of the most unequal countries in the western world in terms of income.
Original post by DaveSmith99
Because we have a large underclass that we like to pretend don't exist until we need someone to blame something on.
No we know they exist, the filthy benefit scroungers
Original post by redferry
It is mainly due to the fact the UK is one of the most unequal countries in the western world in terms of income.
Yet the USA is #3, but a lot more unequal.
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by redferry
It is mainly due to the fact the UK is one of the most unequal countries in the western world in terms of income.
No it isn't, income equality isn't a factor in the HDI. The UK scores relatively lowly because there is too much weight placed on how long someone has been in education, rather than the quality of education. This obviously hinders the UK where until recently cumpulsory education ended at 16. There are countries above the UK that Britain beats in every single area bar average length of education, which to me clearly shows that the HDI is flawed.
Original post by pol pot noodles
No it isn't, income equality isn't a factor in the HDI. The UK scores relatively lowly because there is too much weight placed on how long someone has been in education, rather than the quality of education. This obviously hinders the UK where until recently cumpulsory education ended at 16. There are countries above the UK that Britain beats in every single area bar average length of education, which to me clearly shows that the HDI is flawed.
wouldn't exactly calls gcses quality m8
Our state education is ****. Indian and Chinese students are having to teach our teachers how to teach our pupils Maths.
Original post by Rakas21
I honestly can't say i care about the HDI rating, economically we're pretty good and that's good enough for me.
Good if you're one of the class getting the cream. Tell me more about those sub-Saharan countries with 8% growth rates, bet they're great places to live
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