1990, the Human Development Index (HDI) and the related annual Global Human Development Report were first introduced. The Human Development Index is a statistically composite index of life expectancy, education and per capita income indicators that can be used to categorize participating countries into four levels of human development. In the 2025 report, Bhutan is among the countries in the medium human development category with a score of 0.698 for 2023, ranking 125 out of 193 countries and territorries. (Iceland ranks highest with an HDI of 0,972)
Bhutan’s progress in human development
Between 2010 and 2023, Bhutan’s HDI value changed from 0,593 to 0,698, a change of 17.7 percent. Between 2010 and 2023, Bhutan’s life expectancy at birth changed by 4,2 years, expected years of schooling changed by 1,4 years and mean years of schooling changed by 3,5 years. Bhutan’s GNI per capita changed by about 48.4 percent between 2010 and 2023.
Source: Human Development Report 2025. Country Data
Inequality within Bhutan’s population
In 2010 the Human Development Report introduced the Inequality-adjusted HDI (IHDI), which captures the losses in human development due to inequality across the population in health, education and income. The ‘loss’ in human development due to inequality is given by the difference between the HDI and the IHDI and can be expressed as a percentage. In the year 2023 Bhutan’s loss due to inequality is 31,5 percent, which lowers the HDI to 0,478.
Bhutan’s Multidimensional Poverty Index 2022
Bhutan conducted its own study on the multidimensional poverty index in 2022. The Moderate Multidimensional Poverty Index (MMPI) of Bhutan is based on the data of the Bhutan Living Standard Survey (BLSS) 2022 conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of Bhutan. For the moderate multidimensional poverty index, the increased standard of living of the population was factored in, unlike the original MPI, which measures a more extreme level of poverty called “acute” multidimensional poverty.
In 2022, the moderate multidimensional poverty rate is estimated at 17.8% of the population. The urban multidimensional poverty rate is 8.2%, while the rural poverty rate is 23.9%. 61.4% of poor Bhutanese* live in rural areas.
Disadvantages in access to health (18.0%) account for the largest share of national poverty, followed by water and school attendance (15.7%) and the number of years of schooling for women (15.3%).
The report shows that the MMPI complements the measurement of monetary poverty. 12.4% of Bhutanese are monetarily poor according to the 2022 BLSS dataset, and 17.8% are poor according to the moderate MPI. There is only partial overlap between the two groups. In fact, only 4.7% of Bhutanese were both monetarily and multidimensionally poor in the 2022 BLSS.
Gender Equality
Another notable aspect of the Human Development Report concerns gender equality. The Gender Development Index (GDI) essentially measures gender gaps in human development achievements. Differences between women and men are thus taken into account in the statistical coverage. The female HDI score for 2023 in Bhutan is 0.681 (as opposed to 0.711 for males). This results in a GDI value of 0.958.
In addition to the GDI, the GII (Gender Inequality Index) reflects gender inequalities in three dimensions: reproductive health (measured by maternal mortality ratio and adolescent birth rates), empowerment (measured by the shares of parliamentary seats held and population with at least some secondary education by each gender) and economic activity (measured by labour force participation rates for women and men). In the 2023 HDI report, Bhutan has a GII score of 0,278, which places the country 71st out of 172 countries.
The full HDI 2025 report can be found at: