Cuba is among the Countries with Very High Development Index

Cuba ranks 44th on the Human Development Index published Thursday by the UN Development Program (UNDP), thus placing the island among the nations with the category of very high indicator.The agency established four levels to classify the human development progress: very high, high, medium and low. The Human Development Index is based on social statistics that include three factors: long and healthy life, education and decent standard of living.

In its report, the UNDP places the island among the four countries in Latin America and the Caribbean with the highest levels, including Chile 41st, Argentina 49th and Uruguay 50th. All these countries boast favorable records as to issues like human and gender inequality, gender development and poverty.

The report explains that current world trends are generally positive while progress continues, but it alerts that catastrophes, natural crises and human-induced disasters have continued to claim lives and affect livelihood.

According to the UNDP report Latin America and the Caribbean ranked fourth by regions, followed by the Arab states, Eastern Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, and Southern Asia followed by Sub-Saharan Africa.

However, although progress has been made as to the reduction of poverty, over 2.2 billion people are in multi-dimensional poverty or close to it in today’s world. This means that more than 15 percent of the world population is vulnerable to poverty and nearly 80 percent has no comprehensive social protection, with 12 percent (some 842 million people) undergoes chronic hunger.