The European regional Human Development and Human Poverty Indices

This Regional Focus analyses the regional Human Development Index (HDI) and Human Poverty Index (HPI) as published in the Fifth Cohesion Report (EC 2010). They are based on a slight variation of the methodology developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).This Regional Focus shows that a high level of human development is no guarantee of a low level of human poverty or vice versa. Several regions in the UK, Spain, France, Belgium and Italy combine a high level of human development with a high level of human poverty. Estonia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland show that a low level of human development can still be combined with a low level of human poverty. The three Nordic Member States as well as Germany, Austria and the Netherlands are most successful at combining a high level of human development with a low level of human poverty. Many regions in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary scored poorly on both indices.