Singapore Vs.

United States

Indicators
Human Development Index (HDI) Happy Planet index Gini Coefficient

HDI
Standard of living
o Measured by Real (GDP) per capita in purchasing power parity terms, based on US dollars

Knowledge
measured by adult literacy rate (determined by selfassessment and testing) mean years of schooling received by adults >25 years old

Health
measured by life expectancy (take all the people that died in a period (or a representative sample), note their ages at death, and find the average age) & infant mortality rate (Number of deaths of infants <1yr of age in a Place in a year x 1000)

HDI

Standard of Knowledge living

GDP Per Capita
Purchasi ng Power Literacy Rate (resident s aged 15+) 96 99 Mean years of schoolin g

Health
Infant Mortalit y Rate Life Expecta ncy at birth 81.1

Singapor e United States

0.866 0.910

$50,714 $49,000

91.24 118.75

8.8 2.31

12.4 6.00

78.5

Singapore HDI: 0.866 (Health: 0.964 Education: 0.751 Income: 0.897) US HDI: 0.910 (Health: 0.923 Education: 0.939 Income: 0.869)

Evaluation on HDI
Failure to:
include ecological considerations recognize countries from a global perspective and instead examines each independently.

Redundant because:
it measures aspects of development that have already been highly studied worldwide.

But HDI is important today because:

it consistently draws the attention of governments, corporations and international organizations to portions of development which focus on aspects other than income like health and education.

Happy Planet index

The Happy Planet Index is a new measure of progress that focusses on sustainable well-being for all. Tells us how well nations are doing in terms of supporting their inhabitants to live good lives now, while ensuring that others can do the same in the future.

Happy Planet index

Measured by: Life expectancy Experienced well-being
The data for average levels of well-being in each country are drawn from responses to the ladder of life question in the Gallup World Poll, which used samples of around 1000 individuals aged 15 or over in each of more than 150 countries.

Ecological Footprint
Mostly use 2008 (latest avaialble) Ecological Footprint data from the 2011 Edition of the Global Footprint Networks National Footprint accounts. Some estimate the Ecological Footprint figures using predictive models against a range of variables: CO2 emissions, GDP per capita, the degree of industrialisation and urbanisation, population density

Out of 151 countries

Singapore 90th US: 105th

Evaluation on Happy Planet index

Takes into account:
people's reported life satisfaction, statistical life expectancy measurement of the country's ecological footprint.

However, lacks more current and complete information with which to evaluate well-being.
Most of the data used to evaluate quality of life comes from the World Values Survey, which is done just once every five years and doesn't include most of the world's countries.