Say what development means to you, choose three to six of fourteen measures (use About this measure for sources, dates and scoring), and share 100 points between them. Predict which countries will do well, then reveal the rankings.
Every eligible country's score, what each measure contributed, and how its rank compares with the official Human Development Index (HDI) for the same group of countries.
Put two countries side by side. See which measures cause the gap, and whether small changes in your weights would reverse the order.
Make the case for your index: justify each measure and weight, check for double counting, explain a surprising result, and name its biggest weakness. Copy or print your evaluation.
Your index expresses your definition of development. It does not measure how happy people are, or say where anyone should live.
Your work is saved only in this browser. Save this index and my answers keeps a complete copy (measures, weights, prediction, comparison and written answers) that you can reopen later.
After you reveal your rankings, any change is shown as a revision. Rankings compares the original and revised versions over the same countries, and your prediction is checked against the original.
Choose what matters. Build your index. Compare the world.
The Human Development Index ranks countries on health, education and income. Build your own index from up to six of fourteen measures, then see how your definition changes the rankings for up to 193 countries.
Choose 3–6 measures. You'll decide their importance next.
Share 100 points. Give more to the measures that matter most. Every selected measure needs at least 1 point.
Until you change a weight yourself, points are shared out as evenly as whole numbers allow. After that, adding or removing a measure keeps your points and asks you to share out the difference. To stop a measure counting, remove it in step 2. Your weights express your priorities, but the scoring scales also influence the result: see How the scoring works in Rankings.
Explore without predicting is for demonstrations or a first look. Your results will be labelled as unpredicted.
Finish building your index and make your prediction first.
Each dot is a country. Countries above the line do better on your index than their HDI would suggest; below the line, worse. Compared over the same eligible countries.
Two countries side by side: raw values with their years, the 0–100 score for each measure, and how many points each measure adds.
Build your index first.
Score = where the value sits between fixed low and high reference points (0–100). Points added = score × your weight ÷ 100.
A good index is one you can defend. Explain your choices, test them, and be honest about the weaknesses.
Build your index first.
If two measures move closely together across countries, giving points to both can reward the same underlying advantage twice. This checks the scores of your measures across the eligible countries.
Pick a country. This tries every combination of three measures, weighted equally, and finds the one that gives the country its best rank. So that nobody can climb just by knocking rivals out, every combination is ranked over the same fixed group of countries: those with data for all nine measures apart from income/consumption equality, which is left out of this activity because many countries lack a recent survey. It finds the best of the combinations tested, not the best of every possible index.
Share a read-only link, print or save a PDF report, copy your results as text, or keep a complete copy in this browser. The same options are under Share or print at the top of every page.
Finish your measure choices and weights to save or share this index.
Building your index
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