Ireland’s quality of life: How do we score in the UN’s new rankings?

So tell us about this new index of human development and where Ireland ranks

The UN Human Development Index is updated every couple of years as an assessment of how countries are doing on various measures designed to offer a wider picture than the usual economic statistics. As well as income, it also includes key statistics such as life expectancy, and expected and average years of schooling.

Ireland remains in the top group of “very high human development” according to the latest index. The country’s ranking has slipped from second in the previous index to eighth this time, but the overall score has just reduced slightly, from 0.955 to 0.945. Switzerland, in top place, is at 0.962. Interestingly most countries have slipped a bit during Covid-19.

Switzerland has a life expectancy of 84 years, an average of 14 years spent in education and national income per head of $67,000. Ireland has a life expectancy of 82 years (down from 82.3 in the previous survey), an average of 11.6 years spent in school and national income per head of more than $76,000 (that figure is exaggerated by the impact of multinationals here on our national figures).

At the other end of the scale is South Sudan, where life expectancy is 55, people spend just 5.5 years in school on average and income per capita is just $768.

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Can we trust the figures?

Well, yes. As with all statistics, we just need to be clear what we are looking at. There are various measures that can be used of a country’s development and all will give somewhat different results. Also, national income figures which are part of the calculation overstate Ireland’s real income level in the sense of how households actually benefit. But if we stand back and look at the long-term trends since the series started in 1970, we can see Ireland’s “score” has increased by more than 20 per cent, well ahead of most other countries. Life expectancy has risen by more than seven years, average years of schooling has increased by close to three years and national income per capita has close to doubled. Clearly, material living standards have risen sharply.

So everything is good?

The index shows progress over a long time period and judges that Ireland still ranks highly. It does not mean the country does not have problems which affect human development – of which the housing crisis is perhaps the most obvious, along with healthcare queues. It offers some challenges, too. Some countries, notably the US, have seen life expectancy fall, partly due to Covid-19. Maintaining this and keeping up – and increasing – years spent in education are reasonable longer-term goals which can often get lost in day-to-day debate.

Are there other measurements?

Yes. The UN judges that Ireland’s score slips slightly when inequality is factored in to the equation – in life expectancy, education and income. Ireland is judged to score relatively highly on gender development – comparing the outcomes for males and females under the key headings. But looking at what it calls gender inequality – issues such as maternal mortality, share of female seats in parliament and female labour market participation – Ireland’s ranking falls sharply to 21st. Meanwhile, looking at climate issues such as CO2 emissions, the country’s ranking falls to 66th of the 191 included. Work to do here!