The Philippines ranked 97th spot among 169 countries in the 2010 Human Development Report released by the United Nations on November 4, 2010.  The country had an HDI score of 0.638 and is grouped among countries with medium human development, along the likes of China (ranked at 89th with an HDI of 0.663), Thailand (92nd with an HDI of 0.654), Paraguay, Botswana, Egypt and Uzbekistan.

While it improved its score from 0.635 in 2009, the Philippines' ranking fell from 96th place in last year's report, because of the faster gains recorded by other countries.

HDI measures progress in three dimensions: health, education and income, although the latest report tweaked the indicators used to measure progress in education and income, according to the 236-page report for 2010.  It also added new indices for inequality, gender and poverty.

It shows that the Philippines has steady improved its HDI score from 0.635 in 2009, 0.619 in 2005, 0.597 in 2000, 0.569 in 1995, 0.552 in 1990 and 0.523 in 1980.

Norway topped the global list, with an HDI of 0.938, closely followed by Australia with 0.937 and New Zealand with 0.907.  The United States, with an HDI score of 0.902 ranked fourth while Ireland was fifth with an HDI of 0.895. Zimbabwe, which had a life expectancy of just 47 years and per capita of $176, was at the bottom of the list of 169 nations.

Based on different indicators, the Philippines had a life expectancy at birth of 72.3 years, compared to Norway's (No. 1 in the HDI list) 81 years or Japan's (top performer in life expectancy) 82.3 years.

The average or mean number of years of schooling in the Philippines was placed at 8.7 years out of 11.5 years of expected schooling.  In comparison, the mean years of schooling in Norway was 12.6 years, out of 17.3 years of expected schooling. 

The Philippines had a gross national income per capita (PPP 2008) of $4,002, compared to Norway's $58,810.

Among Asian countries, Japan was ranked 11th with an HDI of 0.884, followed by Korea at 12th spot with an HDI of 0.877 while Israel was 15th with an HDI of 0.872.  Hong Kong placed 21st with an HDI of 0.862 while Singapore was 27th with an HDI of 0.846; Brunei at 37th with an HDI of 0.805; Malaysia, 57th with 0.744; Indonesia, 108th with an HDI of 0.600; Vietnam, 113th at 0.572; India at 119th with an HDI of 0.519; and Cambodia, 124th with an HDI of 0.494.

The United Nations Development Programme said most developing countries made dramatic yet often underestimated progress in health, education and basic living standards in recent decades, with many of the poorest countries posting the greatest gains.

Prior to the report, based on past progress, a country would take around 70 years to move from, the Philippines’ HDI to Spain’s. However, the new report now took into account various developments.

It noted that across the globe in countries such as the Philippines, Bangladesh, India, and Kenya, cellular phone services have become more accessible to poor people as competition and technological advances have brought down prices.

Mobile phone penetration rate in the Philippines was placed at 80 percent.

The new HDI challenged purely economic measures of national achievement and helped lay the conceptual foundation for the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, calling for consistent global tracking of progress in health, education and overall living standards.

“The Human Development Reports have changed the way we see the world,” Ban Ki-moon said, “We have learned that while economic growth is very important, what ultimately matters is using national income to give all people a chance at a longer, healthier and more productive life.”

Helen Clark said, “the Report shows that people today are healthier, wealthier and better educated than before. While not all trends are positive, there is much that countries can do to improve people’s lives, even in adverse conditions. This requires courageous local leadership as well as the continuing commitment of the international community.”

Overall, as shown in the Report’s analysis of all countries for which complete HDI data are available for the past 40 years, life expectancy climbed from 59 years in 1970 to 70 in 2010, school enrolment rose from just 55 percent of all primary and secondary school-age children to 70 percent, and per capita GDP doubled to more than $10,000.

People in all regions shared in this progress, though to varying degrees. Life expectancy, for example, rose by 18 years in the Arab states between 1970 and 2010, compared to eight years in sub-Saharan Africa. The 135 countries studied include 92 percent of the world’s population.

The “Top 10 Movers” highlighted in the 2010 Report—those countries among the 135 that improved most in HDI terms over the past 40 years—were led by Oman, which invested energy earnings over the decades in education and public health.

The other nine “Top Movers” are China, Nepal, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Laos, Tunisia, South Korea, Algeria and Morocco. Remarkably, China was the only country that made the “Top 10” list due solely to income performance; the main drivers of HDI achievement were in health and education.

The next 10 leaders in HDI improvement over the past 40 years include several low-income but high HDI-achieving countries “not typically described as success stories,” the Report notes, among them Ethiopia (#11), Cambodia (#15) and Benin (#18)—all of which made big gains in education and public health.

The region with the fastest HDI progress since 1970 was East Asia, led by China and Indonesia. The Arab countries also posted major gains, with 8 of the 20 world leaders in HDI improvement over the past 40 years. Many countries from sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet Union lagged behind, however, due to the impact of AIDS, conflict, economic upheaval and other factors. Life expectancy actually declined over the past 40 years in three countries of the former Soviet Union—Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation—and six in sub-Saharan Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The new report included new 2010 HDI rankings, with modifications to several key indicators. The top 10 countries in the 2010 HDI are Norway, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Ireland, Lichtenstein, the Netherlands, Canada, Sweden and Germany.