IDG indicators

Reducing extreme poverty and deprivation

Population below $1 a day—is the percentage of the population living on less than $1.08 a day at 1993 international prices (equivalent to $1 in 1985 prices, adjusted for purchasing power parity). Poverty rates are comparable across countries, but as a result of revisions in PPP exchange rates, they cannot be compared with poverty rates reported in previous editions for individual countries. (World Bank)

Poverty gap at $1 a day—is the mean shortfall from the poverty line (counting the nonpoor as having zero shortfall), expressed as a percentage of the poverty line. This measure reflects the depth of poverty as well as its incidence. (World Bank)

Percentage share of income or consumption held by poorest 20%—is the share that accrues to the lowest quintile of the population. (World Bank)

Prevalence of child malnutrition—is the percentage of children under five whose weight for age is less than minus two standard deviations from the median for the international reference population ages 0 to 59 months. The reference population adopted by the WHO in 1983, is based on children from the United States, who are assumed to be well nourished. (World Health Organization)

Universal primary education

Net primary enrollment ratio—is the ratio of the number of children of official school age (as defined by the national education system) who are enrolled in school to the population of the corresponding official school age. Primary education provides children with basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills along with an elementary understanding of such subjects as history, geography, natural science, social science, art, and music. Based on the International Standard Classification of Education, 1976 (ISCED76). (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)

Percentage of cohort reaching grade 5—is the share of children enrolled in primary school who eventually reach grade 5. The estimate is based on the reconstructed cohort method. (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)

Youth literacy rate—is the percentage of people ages 15-24 who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life. (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)

Gender equality 

Ratio of girls to boys in primary and secondary education—is the percentage of girls to boys enrolled at primary and secondary levels in public and private schools. (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)

Ratio of young literate females to males—is the percentage of females to males ages 15-24 who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life. (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)

Infant & child mortality 

Infant mortality rate—is the number of infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 live births in a given year. (World Bank staff estimates and United Nations Children's Fund, State of the World's Children 2000)

Under 5 mortality rate—is the probability that a newborn baby will die before reaching age five, if subject to current age-specific mortality rates. The probability is expressed as a rate per 1,000. (World Bank staff estimates and United Nations Children's Fund, State of the World's Children 2000)

Maternal mortality 

Maternal mortality ratio—is the number of women who die during pregnancy and childbirth, per 100,000 live births. (Demographic and Health Surveys, the World Health Organization's Coverage of Maternity Care (1997) and other WHO sources, the United Nations Children's Fund, and national statistical offices)

Births attended by skilled health staff—are the percentage of deliveries attended by personnel trained to give the necessary supervision, care, and advice to women during pregnancy, labor, and the postpartum period, to conduct deliveries on their own, and to care for the newborns. (World Health Organization)

Reproductive health 

Contraceptive prevalence rate—is the percentage of women who are practicing, or whose sexual partners are practicing, any form of contraception. It is usually measured for married women ages 15-49 only. (Surveys—such as Demographic and Health Survey or Living Standards Measurement Study—from national sources)

Prevalence of HIV, female—refers to the percentage of females ages 15–24 who are infected with HIV. (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS [UNAIDS])

Environment 

Status of national environmental action plans—refers to environmental strategies and action plans that provide a comprehensive, cross-sectoral analysis of conservation and resource management issues to help integrate environmental concerns with the development process. They include national conservation strategies, national environmental action plans, national environmental management strategies, and national sustainable development strategies. (World Conservation Union's 1996 World Directory of Country Environmental Studies; and the World Bank's 1998 Catalog: Operational Documents as of July 31, 1998)

Access to an improved water source—refers to the percentage of the population with reasonable access to an adequate amount of water from an improved source, such as a household connection, public standpipe, borehole, protected well or spring, and rainwater collection. Unimproved sources include vendors, tanker trucks, and unprotected wells and springs. Reasonable access is defined as the availability of at least 20 liters a person a day from a source within one kilometer of the dwelling. (World Health Organization and United Nations Children's Fund, Global Water Supply and Sanitation Assessment 2000 Report)

Forest area—is land under natural or planted stands of trees, whether productive or not. (Food and Agricultural Organization, State of the World’s Forests 2001)

Nationally protected areas—are totally or partially protected areas of at least 1,000 hectares that are designated as national parks, natural monuments, nature reserves or wildlife sanctuaries, protected landscapes and seascapes, or scientific reserves with limited public access. The data do not include sites protected under local or provincial law. (World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Protected Areas Data Unit)

GDP per unit of energy use—is the PPP GDP per kilogram of oil equivalent of commercial energy use. PPP GDP is gross domestic product converted to international dollars using purchasing power parity rates. An international dollar has the same purchasing power over GDP as a U.S. dollar has in the United States. (International Energy Agency, and World Bank PPP data)

Carbon dioxide emissions per capita—are those stemming from the burning of fossil fuels and the manufacture of cement. They include contributions to the carbon dioxide produced during consumption of solid, liquid, and gas fuels and gas flaring. (Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in the U.S. state of Tennessee)

General indicators 

Population—is based on the de facto definition of population, which counts all residents regardless of legal status or citizenship--except for refugees not permanently settled in the country of asylum, who are generally considered part of the population of their country of origin. (World Bank staff estimates from various sources)

Gross national income (formerly referred to as gross national product, or GNP)—is the sum of value added by all resident producers plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output plus net receipts of primary income (compensation of employees and property income) from abroad. GNI, calculated in national currency, is usually converted to U.S. dollars at official exchange rates for comparisons across economies, although an alternative rate is used when the official exchange rate is judged to diverge by an exceptionally large margin from the rate actually applied in international transactions. To smooth fluctuations in prices and exchange rates, a special Atlas method of conversion is used by the World Bank. This applies a conversion factor that averages the exchange rate for a given year and the two preceding years, adjusted for differences in rates of inflation between the country and the G-5 countries (France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States). (World Bank national accounts data, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development National Accounts data files)

GNI per capita (formerly referred to as GNP per capita)—is the gross national income, converted to U.S. dollars using the World Bank Atlas method, divided by the midyear population. (World Bank national accounts and population data, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development National Accounts data files)

Adult literacy rate—is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can, with understanding, read and write a short, simple statement on their everyday life. (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization)

Total fertility rate—represents the number of children that would be born to a woman if she were to live to the end of her childbearing years and bear children in accordance with prevailing age-specific fertility rates. (World Bank staff estimates from various sources)

Life expectancy at birth—indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life. (World Bank staff estimates from various sources including the United Nations Statistics Division's Population and Vital Statistics Report, country statistical offices, and Demographic and Health Surveys from national sources)

Aid—is official development assistance and net official aid, which record the actual international transfer by the donor of financial resources or of goods or services valued at the cost to the donor, less any repayments of loan principal during the same period. Grants by official agencies of the members of the Development Assistance Committee are included, as are loans with a grant element of at least 25 percent, and technical cooperation and assistance. This ratio is computed using GNI values in U.S. dollars converted at official exchange rates. (Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and World Bank and OECD GNI estimates)

External debt—is debt owed to nonresidents repayable in foreign currency, goods, or services. It is the sum of public, publicly guaranteed, and private nonguaranteed long-term debt, use of IMF credit, and short-term debt. Short-term debt includes all debt having an original maturity of one year or less and interest in arrears on long-term debt. (World Bank, Global Development Finance)

Investment—consists of outlays on additions to the fixed assets of the economy plus net changes in the level of inventories. Fixed assets include land improvements (fences, ditches, drains, and so on); plant, machinery, and equipment purchases; and the construction of roads, railways, and the like, including schools, offices, hospitals, private residential dwellings, and commercial and industrial buildings. Inventories are stocks of goods held by firms to meet temporary or unexpected fluctuations in production or sales, and "work in progress." According to the 1993 SNA, net acquisitions of valuables are also considered capital formation. (World Bank national accounts data, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development National Accounts data files)

Trade—is the sum of exports and imports of goods and services measured as a share of gross domestic product. (World Bank national accounts data, and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development National Accounts data files)