The first Global Human Development Report (GHDR), as mentioned above, proposed an index covering the various dimensions of people's basic choices - the Human Development Index (HDI) - as the general measure of human development, and the classification of countries based on this.

The methodology of calculating the HDI is explained in detail in the technical notes in the appendices. But for the purposes of this section, it is enough to mention that, methodologically, the HDI includes three variables: the longevity index measured by life expectancy at birth; the educational index measured by a combination of the adult literacy rate (with a weighting of two-thirds) and the joint enrolment rate in primary, secondary and higher education (with a weighting of one-third); and finally, the standard of living index, measured by real per capita GDP expressed in PPP (purchasing power parity) dollars. The HDI is calculated as a simple average of these three indices.