What are the most and least developed regions in Europe?
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The Human Development Index is a composite index by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s Human Development Report Office. It is used to measure a country’s development. The score is based on life expectancy, education and per capita income indicators.
The Human Development Index is normally calculated on the national level. The Global Data Lab of the Nijmegen Radboud University has calculated the HDI at the subnational level.
Based on HDI, Europe is the most developed continent in the world, with all regions having either a high or very high HDI. Because of that, I decided to split the 0.90 to 1.00 class into two classes. Normally when showing the HDI, 0.90 to 1.00 is shown as a single class. Outside of Europe, only Alberta in Canada and some parts of Australia and New Zealand score over 0.95. Therefore it doesn’t make much sense to split this class. In Europe however, there are a large number of areas that fall into the 0.90-1.00 range and also quite a few that score over 0.95. So, to differentiate more, I’ve decided to split this class into two for this HDI map of Europe.
The least developed parts of Europe are located in Bulgaria, Kosovo, Moldova and North Macedonia. Despite that, they still score quite high, especially compared to the rest of the world. the South East of North Macedonia (0.722) is the least developed area in all of Europe.
The most developed areas of Europe are located in the western half of Europe. Especially Switzerland, southern Germany and Norway score really well. Zürich (0.989) has the highest HDI in Europe and even in all of the world.
Another country that stands out positively and is definitely worth mentioning, is Slovenia. When talking about the most developed countries in Europe, people often mention countries like Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands (and rightfully so). But according to this map, Slovenia is definitely up there as well. The area around its capital Ljubljana is even one of the most developed areas in Europe.
Curious about the subregional HDI in other parts of the world? Check out these maps of Africa, Asia, North America and South America.
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