Japan is the second-best place in the world in terms of human development, with Hong Kong in first place and Iceland in third, according to a new index called the Human Life Indicator that is supposed to be simpler and more accurate than the U.N. Human Development Index.
The Human Life Indicator, or HLI, was published in a study in November by the Population and Development Review and co-authored by Simone Ghislandi of Bocconi University in Milan and his colleagues Warren Sanderson and Sergei Scherbov.
The HLI takes into account inequality-adjusted life expectancy at birth, while the Human Development Index, introduced by the United Nations in 1990, measures life expectancy at birth, expected years of schooling, and economic conditions.