Map of the Latin American countries by Human Development Index in 2021

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. It is a standard means of measuring well-being. It is used to distinguish whether the country is a developed, developing, or underdeveloped country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. Countries fall into four broad categories based on their HDI: very high, high, medium, and low human development.

List

The table below presents the latest Human Development Index (HDI) for countries in Latin America as included in a United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report (released in 2022).^[1] Previous HDI values and rankings are retroactively recalculated using the same updated data sets and current methodologies, as presented in Table 2 of the Statistical Annex of the Human Development Report. The HDI rankings and values in the 2021-22 Human Development Report cannot therefore be compared directly to HDI rankings and values published in previous Human Development Reports.^[1]

Rank		Country	Human Development Index (HDI)
Region	World		HDI value		Change in HDI value 2019–21*	Average annual growth (2010–2021)[2]
			2021	2019[3]
Very High Human Development
1	42	Chile	0.855	0.851	0.004	0.46%
2	47	Argentina	0.842	0.845	0.003	0.09%
3	58	Costa Rica	0.809	0.810	0.001	0.43%
		Uruguay	0.809	0.817	0.008	0.25%
5	61	Panama	0.805	0.815	0.010	0.37%
High Human Development
6	72	Brazil	0.780	0.765	0.09	0.38%
7	80	Dominican Republic	0.767	0.756	0.011	0.73%
8	83	Cuba	0.764	0.783	0.019	0.19%
9	84	Peru	0.762	0.777	0.015	0.45%
10	86	Mexico	0.758	0.779	0.021	0.15%
11	88	Colombia	0.752	0.767	0.015	0.32%
12	95	Ecuador	0.740	0.759	0.019	0.05%
13	105	Paraguay	0.717	0.728	0.011	0.42%
Medium Human Development
14	118	Bolivia	0.692	0.718	0.026	0.40%
15	120	Venezuela	0.691	0.711	0.020	0.80%
16	125	El Salvador	0.675	0.673	0.002	0.22%
17	126	Nicaragua	0.667	0.660	0.007	0.76%
18	135	Guatemala	0.627	0.663	0.036	0.33%
19	137	Honduras	0.621	0.634	0.013	0.36%
Low Human Development
20	163	Haiti	0.535	0.510	0.025	1.94%
*Change in HDI value rounded to three decimals

See also

• Community of Latin American and Caribbean States
• List of countries by Human Development Index
• List of countries by Human Development Index by region
• List of countries by industrial production growth rate
• List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty
• List of Latin American and Caribbean countries by GDP growth
• List of Latin American and Caribbean countries by GDP (nominal)
• List of Latin American and Caribbean countries by GDP (PPP)
• List of Latin American countries by population

References