PETALING JAYA: Malaysia moved up a rank on the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) 2020 to be 62 out of 189 countries in the index measuring human progress and well-being.
Additionally, Malaysia's HDI value is 0.810 this year, which is above the average 0.747 value recorded in the East Asia and the Pacific region.
The improvement in the ranking has been attributed to Malaysia’s increase in average life expectancy to 76.2 years (76 previously) and its increase in Gross National Income per capita to USD 27,534 or RM111,554 (which was USD 27,227 or RM110,310 previously).
However, Malaysia's HDI value would have been lower if certain climate and environmental factors were taken into account.