Pakistan's Human Development Index (HDI) ranking is 147, making it the last country to fall in the 'Medium Human Development' group in the 2016 Human Development Report published on Wednesday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
According to the UNDP website, the composite Human Development Index (HDI) integrates three basic dimensions of human development, which include:
Life expectancy at birth reflects the ability to lead a long and healthy life.
Mean years of schooling and expected years of schooling reflect the ability to acquire knowledge.
Gross National Income (GNI) per capita reflects the ability to achieve a decent standard of living.
The Gender Development Index compares female and male HDI values, while the Gender Inequality Index highlights women’s empowerment.
According to the report, an average Pakistani is expected to receive 8.1 years of schooling while the average life span of a Pakistani is 66.4 years.
Broken down, a Pakistani female is expected to receive 7.4 years of schooling while the average male may receive 8.8 years of normal schooling.
The report further elaborates that an average of 26.5 per cent of the female Pakistani population has received some measure of secondary education while 46.1pc men have received secondary education, displaying a 20pc difference between the two genders.
In contrast, a Pakistani female may live two extra years on average than a male, as the average life expectancy for females stands at 67.4 years while it is 65.4 years for the average male.
According to the report, women in all regions have a longer life expectancy than men, yet in all regions women consistently have, on average, a lower HDI value than men.
In Pakistan for example, the female HDI value stands at 0.452 while the male HDI value stands at 0.610, with a difference of 0.158 between them.
The report also points out that the largest difference in the male and female HDI is in South Asia, where the average female HDI value is 20pc lower than the male HDI value.
An even larger gap is seen in the labour force participation rate where on average only 24.3pc women are employed in contrast to an average of 82.2pc men. While the country's employment to population ratio stands at 51.0pc, meaning that nearly half the Pakistani population over the age of 15 is unemployed, while the median age of Pakistani residents is 22.5 years.
A mere 3pc of legislators, senior officials and managers are women, while they hold 20pc seats in the parliament.
GNI per capita, for an average Pakistani stand at $5,031. It is further elaborated that the average GNI for female Pakistanis is a mere $1,498 while the male average GNI stands at $8,376.
Pakistan faces an average of 178 deaths for every 100,000 live births, while an average of 38.7 children out of 1000 are born to young girls between the ages of 15-19.
However, the report suggests that maternal mortality rates have also declined considerably since 1990: 45pc globally and 64pc in South Asia, as of 2013.
Overall the world shows a significant amount of development and the report suggests that between 1990 and 2015 the number of countries classified as having low human development fell from 62 to 41, and those classified as having very high human development rose from 11 to 51.
It also suggests that progress in human development has been impressive over the past 25 years and that people now live longer, more children are in school and more people have access to basic social services.
