Social equity indicators
Gender Development Index (GDI)
A UNDP composite index comparing women's and men's Human Development Index values, expressing gender disparity in health, education, and command over economic resources.
Definition
The Gender Development Index is a UNDP measure published with the Human Development Report that expresses the ratio of female to male Human Development Index values across the same three dimensions: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living. A GDI of 1 indicates parity; values below 1 indicate disparity favouring men, and countries are grouped into five deviation-from-parity categories.
References
construction and data
GDI context and history
Overview
What it means
GDI shows how much human development is lost to gender gaps: a country can rank high on the HDI yet show marked inequality between women and men. Because it reuses HDI components, it measures disparity in the same terms as the headline index rather than introducing new dimensions.
How it is used
Analysts use GDI alongside the Gender Inequality Index (GII) — GDI for gaps in basic capabilities, GII for losses from inequality — in country diagnostics, SDG 5 monitoring, and development-policy design.
Why it matters
It disaggregates the world's most-watched development metric by sex, preventing national averages from hiding systematic disadvantage.
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