In 2018, we managed to score 0.804, which placed us in the the 'Very High Human Development' category.
Improvement in several categories
According to a report by Malay Mail, this places us 61st in a list of of 189 countries.We scored 0.802 in the previous edition.
The report said Malaysia’s score increased primarily because of the improved life expectancy average and the Gross National Income Per Capita at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP).
“Between 1990 and 2018, Malaysia has shown steady progress in the human development index from 0.644 to 0.804, an increase of 24.9 per cent, reflecting an average annual increase of 0.80 per cent,” said the 2019 Human Development Report (HDR) in their survey entitled “Beyond Income, Beyond Averages, Beyond Today: Inequalities in Human Development in the 21st Century” issued by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The report also highlighted that Malaysia’s life expectancy at birth has increased by 5.1 years, which means the years of schooling increased by 3.6 years and expected years of schooling increased by 3.7 years, while Malaysia’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita increased by about 167.6 per cent between 1990 and 2018.
Only Singapore and Brunei were the two other Asean countries ranked in the same category as Malaysia.
If you are wondering about the top nations in the HDI, they are none other than Norway (0.954), Switzerland (0.946) and Ireland (0.942).