Jamaica Improves in World HDI Ranking

• Jamaica is now ranked 96 out of 189 countries and territories with a human development index (HDI) of 0.726. The report was released Monday by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• Richard Kelly, the Program Specialist at the UNDP, said the new ranking represents a 13.2 percent increase in Jamaica's HDI value between 1990 and 2018.
• "For life expectancy, the country has gone up by 1.2 years. For mean years of schooling, we are up by 3.9 years and for expected years of schooling, we are up by 1.9 years, between 1990 and 2018," Mr. Kelly revealed.
• In addition, Jamaica's Gross National Income (GNI) per capita jumped by 20.2 percent from 1990 to 2018. The ranking puts Jamaica in the high human development category and is shared with Venezuela.
• However, Jamaica's 2018 HDI is below the average for countries in the high human development group and below the average for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

(Source: RJRNewsOnline)