Although the Human Development Index (HDI) has garnered criticism for its simplistic
weighting scheme, the nationallyrecognized
index is still used by governments to determine the
effectiveness of policy decisions. This study looked at the index’s three main factors represented by
income, health, and life expectancy and narrowed down the broad factors into separate proxy factors. The proxy variables were then analyzed against the HDI to determine which factors impacted the index the
most. By identifying more relatable and specific variables, this study is especially unique in that it
provides governments with a list of factors they can effectively target to improve their HDI rankings