Kyrgyzstan takes the 118th place out of 191 countries and territories in the Human Development Index in the Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). UNDP Office in the Kyrgyz Republic reports.
The Human Development Report covers six key composite indices of human development: the Human Development Index, the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index, the Gender Development Index, the Gender Inequality Index, the Multidimensional Poverty Index and the Planetary pressure-adjusted Human Development Index.
Kyrgyzstan’s 2021 Human Development Index is 0.692. It is above the average of 0.636 for countries in the medium human development group and below the average of 0.796 for countries in Europe and Central Asia.
In the regional perspective, Kyrgyzstan’s ranking of 118 is comparable with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The Human Development Index of Kyrgyzstan increased in 2021 compared to the previous year (0.692 vs. 0.689), that allowed the country to gain its position in the ranking (118 in 2021 vs. 121 in 2020).
Between 1990 and 2021, Kyrgyzstan’s life expectancy at birth improved by 5.7 years, mean years of schooling changed by 2.2 years and expected years of schooling changed by 1.2 years.
In the meantime, Kyrgyzstan’s gross national income per capita declined by about 11.2 percent.
The report also provides evidence on the extent to which multifaceted inequalities discounted the development progress in 2021. To this end, the index for the Kyrgyz Republic demonstrates that existing imbalances in distribution of wellbeing lead to a «loss» of 9.4 per cent of human development, with the income inequality contributing the most.
This aligns with the wider Europe and Central Asia region pattern, where overall loss in human development due to inequality amounted to 10.3 per cent in 2021.
From the gender perspective, gaps between females and males in achievements of human development was estimated at 0.966 for the Kyrgyz Republic in 2021, with female Human Development Index value of 0.675 in contrast with 0.698 for males. For instance, life expectancy at birth for women was 8.6 years higher compared to men, while men outperformed women by over 220 percent in terms of estimated gross national income per capita. The Gender Inequality Index showed that such inequalities in reproductive health, empowerment, and labor force participation between female and male population put Kyrgyzstan on the 87th place out of 170 countries by the scale of loss stemming from gender gaps.
Since last year female participation in the labor market has decreased from 44.8 percent to 42.1 present and is still very low compared to 71.7 for men.
