Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- On 8 September, the United Nations Development Program published the Human Development Report 2021/22, “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our Future in a Transforming World”. 

According to the report, Uzbekistan rose from 106th to 101st place among 191 countries with an index score of 0.727 (improving the rating score by 0.007 compared to the last report) and, according to the index methodology, fixed itself in the classification of countries with a high level of human development.

The Human Development Report 2021/22 is based on the reforms carried out between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021 and reports from international organizations such as UNDESA, UNICEF, UNESCO, World Bank and United Nations Statistics Division.

Almost all countries saw a decline in human development in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic; most low, medium and high Human Development Index (HDI) countries experienced further declines in the following year.

Over the past six reports, Uzbekistan has improved the index value by +0.018 in this ranking, as a result, life expectancy has increased from 70.8 to 70.9 years, the average duration of education from 11.7 to 11.9 years, the expected duration of education from 11. 9 to 12.5 years, and per capita gross national income at purchasing power parity from $6,726 to $7,917.

As a result of the large-scale work carried out over the past six years in our country to improve the lifestyle of the population, a radical reform of the education and healthcare systems:

- the maternal mortality rate (per 100,000 live births) at the end of 2021 was reduced to 14.4, compared with 2016, a decrease by 3.0 was recorded and the infant mortality rate (the number of deaths under the age of 1 year compared to 10,000 live births) by at the end of 2021, it was reduced to 9.2, compared to 2016, a decrease of 1.5 was recorded;

- the number of higher education institutions reached 154 in the 2021/2022 academic year (70 in the 2016/2017 academic year), and the youth enrollment rate in higher education (undergraduate) was 28% in the 2021/2022 academic year (9% in the 2016/2017 academic year);

 - real gross income per capita increased from 5.9 million soums in 2016 to 13.3 million soums in 2021.

The top three global rankings are Switzerland (0.962), Norway (0.961) and Iceland (0.959), while Niger (0.400), Chad (0.394) and South Sudan (0.385) are in the lowest positions.