The United Nation's Human Development Report (HDR) has once again, in 2015, chosen Qatar as the most advanced state among Arab nations, a diction the country has held for at least the past three years.
Overall, Qatar came in 32nd place in terms of its "Human Development Index" (HDI) measure – tied with Cyprus – out of 188 countries in the UN's 2015 report.
The 2015 HDR bases its results on various indexes taking into account states' achievements many criteria including access to knowledge, standard of leaving, work and employment opportunities, education level, and poverty level, gender inequality. The report includes looks into 188 countries and UN-recognized territories.
One of the most weighted indexes called HDI is a summary measure for assessing long-term progress in three basic dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge and a decent standard of living.
Between 1980 and 2014, Qatar's life expectancy at birth increased by 5.6 years to 78.2, mean years of schooling increased by 4.7 years to 9.1 and expected years of schooling increased by 1.9 years to 13.8. Qatar's gross national income per capita decreased to $123,124 by about 14.6 percent between 1980 and 2014.
From the Arab States, countries which are close to Qatar in 2014 HDI rank and to some extent in population size are Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, with the most notable differences compared to Qatar are seen in gross national income (GNI) per capita. Bahrain's GNI per capital value was $38,599 in 2014, whereas it was $60,868 for United Arab Emirates.