Which index combines health, education, and income into a single figure for development?

• A. Gross Domestic Product
• B. Human Development Index
• C. Multidimensional Poverty Index
• D. Happiness Index

Answer: (B)

Development is often about more than money, so this index blends different aspects of well-being into one number. The Human Development Index does exactly that by pairing health, education, and income into a single figure. For health it uses life expectancy at birth; for education it considers both years of schooling and expected years of schooling; for living standards it uses gross national income per capita adjusted for buying power. Each component is turned into a score between 0 and 1, and then combined to produce the overall HDI. A higher HDI means a higher level of development, capturing how long people live and how well they’re educated alongside their economic means.

Other options focus on related ideas but not the same composite measure. GDP looks only at economic output, not health or education. The Multidimensional Poverty Index assesses deprivations across several areas but isn’t a single development score derived from these three components. The Happiness Index measures subjective well-being, not a formal development metric.