Human Assets Index (HAI): Annual Data for Developing Countries

145 developing countries are covered in this annual time series of the Human Assets Index (HAI) from 1990 to 2016. The HAI is a composite index of education and health used by the UN Committee for Development Policy (UN-CDP) to identify Least Developed Countries (LDCs). This dataset results from collaborative work between FERDI and UN-DESA to construct retrospective series for tracking progress and enabling research.

Use Cases

• Tracking national progress in education and health for LDC identification based on the UN-CDP methodology.
• Analyzing longitudinal trends in human capital development across 145 developing countries.
• Benchmarking country performance against the composite HAI indicators over a 27-year period.

Strengths

• Provides a long, consistent annual time series covering 27 years (1990-2016).
• Covers a specific and policy-relevant set of 145 developing countries.
• Developed through a documented collaboration between research institution FERDI and UN-DESA.

Limitations

• Key metadata is sparse; specific column names and the exact calculation methodology are not provided in the input.
• The data is not current, with the latest year covered being 2016.
• One source lists a file size of 214777 bytes, but the exact row count is unknown, limiting clarity on data volume.

Provenance

Source

FERDI (Fondation pour les études et recherches sur le développement international) in collaboration with UN-DESA (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs).

Collection Method

Statistical construction of retrospective series, building on earlier work by Korachais (2011) and updates by Closset, Feindouno, and Goujon (2014).

Time Range

1990 to 2016 (with noted earlier work covering 1970-2008).

Freshness

Last updated on platform: 2026-06-05.

Geography

145 developing countries.