Countries in Asia by human development index

Countries in Asia by human development index, UNDP, 2023

#	Country	HDI	Region
1	Singapore	0.946	South-Eastern Asia
2	United Arab Emirates	0.940	Western Asia
3	South Korea	0.937	Eastern Asia
4	Japan	0.925	Eastern Asia
5	Israel	0.919	Western Asia
6	Cyprus	0.913	Western Asia
7	Saudi Arabia	0.900	Western Asia
8	Bahrain	0.899	Western Asia
9	Qatar	0.886	Western Asia
10	Oman	0.858	Western Asia
11	Turkey	0.853	Western Asia
12	Kuwait	0.852	Western Asia
13	Georgia	0.844	Western Asia
=14	Brunei	0.837	South-Eastern Asia
=14	Kazakhstan	0.837	Central Asia
16	Malaysia	0.819	South-Eastern Asia
17	Armenia	0.811	Western Asia
18	Iran	0.799	Southern Asia
19	Thailand	0.798	South-Eastern Asia
20	China	0.797	Eastern Asia
21	Azerbaijan	0.789	Western Asia
22	Sri Lanka	0.776	Southern Asia
=23	Maldives	0.766	Southern Asia
=23	Vietnam	0.766	South-Eastern Asia
25	Turkmenistan	0.764	Central Asia
26	Jordan	0.754	Western Asia
27	Lebanon	0.752	Western Asia
28	Mongolia	0.747	Eastern Asia
29	Uzbekistan	0.740	Central Asia
30	Indonesia	0.728	South-Eastern Asia
=31	Kyrgyzstan	0.720	Central Asia
=31	Philippines	0.720	South-Eastern Asia
33	Bhutan	0.698	Southern Asia
34	Iraq	0.695	Western Asia
35	Tajikistan	0.691	Central Asia
=36	Bangladesh	0.685	Southern Asia
=36	India	0.685	Southern Asia
38	Timor-Leste	0.634	South-Eastern Asia
39	Nepal	0.622	Southern Asia
40	Laos	0.617	South-Eastern Asia
41	Myanmar	0.609	South-Eastern Asia
42	Cambodia	0.606	South-Eastern Asia
43	Syria	0.564	Western Asia
44	Pakistan	0.544	Southern Asia
45	Afghanistan	0.496	Southern Asia
46	Yemen	0.470	Western Asia

No UNDP figure for 2 countries: North Korea, Taiwan.

Territories and other places

Not ranked: dependencies of the states above, places whose status is disputed. Highest first.

Place	HDI	Status
Hong Kong	0.955	Territory of China
Palestine	0.674	Status disputed

Questions

Which country in Asia has the highest human development?

Singapore has the highest human development in Asia: an index of 0.946 (2023). Next come the United Arab Emirates (an index of 0.940) and South Korea (an index of 0.937).

Which country in Asia has the lowest human development?

Yemen, with an index of 0.470 (2023).

What is the typical human development index of a country in Asia?

The median of the 46 countries in Asia is an index of 0.766: half are above it, half below. The median, not the average, because a few countries at the top would drag an average far above almost everyone.

Where do the figures come from?

The United Nations Development Programme’s index of a long and healthy life, education and a decent standard of living, from 0 to 1. Source: UNDP, 2023. Only independent states are ranked; territories are listed separately. A country’s continent follows Natural Earth; the handful of island states it files under the open ocean are placed by their UN subregion.

Source: UNDP. Countries sharing a value share a rank. All sources.