Quality of life, national level data
Quality of life indicator Re/De Constructed
Compiled by Gene Shackman, Ph.D.
Director of The Global Social Change Research Project
http://gsociology.icaap.org
This file, quality of life, country data, is here
http://gsociology.icaap.org/dataupload.html
I reconstructed a human development index as follows:
I took the scores of each variable (GDP per Capita, Infant Mortality Rate, Education, Freedom, Happiness) and calculated the mean and standard deviation.
Then I calculated how many standard deviations away each country was from the mean. The Standard Deviations (SD) away is the new score.
Thus, all variables could be averaged for a simple version of the “human development index”
I reversed the signs for Infant Mortality Rate, so high would be good, which was comparable to education and GDP per capita.
Freedom originally is scored so low = more freedom. Thus, I also reversed the signs for freedom too.
Data sources:
Region and Area definition
United Nations. Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Population Division. World Economic Prospects, 2015 Edition.
Documentation. Other data
http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Download/Other/Documentation/
Population data
Total population, both sexes combined
World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, United Nations Population Division
http://data.un.org/
Infant mortality rate
Source: World Population Prospects: The 2012 Revision | United Nations Population Division
data.un.org
According to the UN site, http://data.un.org/Host.aspx?Content=UNdataUse
All data and metadata provided on UNdata’s website are available free of charge and may be copied freely, duplicated and further distributed provided that UNdata is cited as the reference.
Real 2005 Per Capita ($) GDP
Historical Gross Domestic Product Per Capita (GDP per cap)
for Baseline Countries/Regions (in 2005 dollars) 1969-2013
Updated:12/08/2013
Source: ERS International Macroeconomic Data Set
Contact: Dr, Mathew Shane (202-694-5282, mshane@ers.usda.gov)
Information important for using this table.
http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/international-macroeconomic-data-set.aspx
I use ERS as the data source because the UN does not have entries for the former USSR countries before 1995, while the ERS data does.
Average years of schooling
worldbank data
http://databank.worldbank.org/Data/Views/VariableSelection/SelectVariables.aspx?source=Education%20Statistics#s_b
The WorldBank says:
You are encouraged to use the Datasets to benefit yourself and others in creative ways. You may extract, download, and make copies of the information contained in the Datasets, and you may share that information with third parties.
http://go.worldbank.org/OJC02YMLA0
NOTE: average years of schooling correlates .7 to .9 with percent of people with no education
It also generally correlates highly with percent who finished primary, secondary and tertiary schools
The worldbank data does not provide "world" estimates
World happiness report
http://worldhappiness.report/
I used 2015 data. The website says, about the 2016 report:
This publication may be reproduced using the following reference:
Helliwell, J., Layard, R., & Sachs, J. (2016). World Happiness Report 2016, Update (Vol. I). New York: Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
World Happiness Report management by Sharon Paculor and Anthony Annett, copy edit by Jill Hamburg Coplan, Aditi Shah and Saloni Jain, design by John Stislow and Stephanie Stislow, cover design by Sunghee Kim.
Full text and supporting documentation can be downloaded from the website: http://worldhappiness.report/#happiness2016
ISBN 978-0-9968513-3-6 Volume I
According to the World Happiness FAQ page http://worldhappiness.report/faq/ the scores are based on responses to questions from the Gallup World Poll.
UNDP Human Development Index (HDI)
From the UNDP Human Development Report.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/2014-report/download
According to the terms of use page, we are free to share, redistribute, etc, as long as we give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/copyright-and-terms-use
Freedom in the World (PR and CL)
http://www.freedomhouse.org/report-types/freedom-world
Data copyright by the Freedom House, included here by permission
Any use of these data should include citation to the Freedom House
1972 data for South Africa is from 1973
Data are included for 1990 and 1995 because former USSR data only start after 1990. No data before that.
However, there is data for USSR up through 1990.
"PR" stands for "Political Rights," "CL" stands for "Civil Liberties," and "Status" is the Freedom Status.
Political Rights and Civil Liberties are measured on a one-to-seven scale, with one representing the highest degree of Freedom and seven the lowest.
“F,” “PF,” and “NF,” respectively, stand for “Free,” “Partly Free,” and “Not Free.”
Until 2003, countries whose combined average ratings for Political Rights and for Civil Liberties fell between 1.0 and 2.5 were designated "Free"; between 3.0 and 5.5 “Partly Free," and between 5.5 and 7.0 “Not Free.”
Beginning with the ratings for 2003, countries whose combined average ratings fall between 3.0 and 5.0 are "Partly Free," and those between 5.5 and 7.0 are "Not Free."
Ratings for territories are not included in this table.
Several countries became independent, split into two or more countries, or merged with a neighboring state. Scores for these countries are given only for the period of their existence as independent states.
*These refer to the various editions ofFreedom in the World, except for Jan.-Feb. 1973 through Jan.-Feb. 1977, which are from the bimonthly journalFreedom at Issue.
The firstFreedom in the Worldbook-length survey was the 1978 edition.
For 1972, South Africa was rated as “White” (2,3 Free) and “Black” (5,6 Not Free).
For Yugoslavia, ratings from 1999 to 2002 were for the country that remained following the departures between 1991 and 1992 of Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
In February 2003, the Yugoslav parliament adopted a constitutional charter establishing the state of Serbia and Montenegro. Thus, beginning in 2003, Yugoslavia is listed as "Serbia and Montenegro."
The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro dissolved when Montenegro withdrew in June 2006, making Serbia an independent state. Thus, the ratings for Serbia and Montenegro are listed separately beginning in 2006.
Kosovo was first listed as a territory beginning in 1992. Since 2009, it is listed as an independent country.
South Sudan was first listed as an independent country in 2011 after officially separating from Sudan in July 2011.
The former Zaire is listed under Congo (Kinshasa), and the former Western Samoa is listed under Samoa.
