Human Development Index (HDI) is yearly, and so one can say that India's 2015 value of 0.624 was crossed by China sometime between 2003 and 2004.
One can see that India, per capita income-wise is about 10 years behind China, but in HDI is 13-14 years behind. In some health and education indicators India is 25 years behind China. By these measures, India is not getting increases in human welfare commensurate with its increasing income.
| Index | India 2015 | When China |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.624 | 2003-2004 |
| Demography-Median Age (years) | 26.6 | 1990-1995 |
| Education-Adult Literacy Rate (% ages 15 and older) | 72.10% | before 1990 |
| Education-Expected years of schooling (years) | 11.7 | 2006-2007 |
| Education-Mean years of schooling (years) | 6.3 | 1999 |
| Education-Population with at least some secondary education (% ages 25 and older) | 48.7 | 1995-2000 |
| Health-Infant Mortality rate (per 1000 live births) | 37.9 | 1990-1995 |
| Health-Life expectancy at birth (years) | 68.3 | before 1990 |
| Health-Under-five mortality rate (per 1000 live births) | 47.7 | 1990-1995 |
| Gross Domestic Product per capita (2011 PPP $) | 5730.1 | 2000-2005 |
| Gross National Income per capita (2011 PPP $) | 5663.5 | 2005-2006 |
A commenter asked for the trajectories, two are shown here:
Human Development Index 1990-2015 (light blue: China, dark: India)
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| Human Development Index 1990-2015: China and India |
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| Gross National Income per capita (2011 PPP $) |
Logging you in...
guest · 418 weeks ago
Possibly equally import, Chinese rulers inflicted mass cultural annihilation on its populace, which despite all its awful consequences removed many obstacles to change. Democratic India doesn't have that option, and must implement necessary cultural changes in a way that we may hope is more humane.
macgupta 81p · 418 weeks ago
As to the point: yes, China is a different country with a different history. Still, it is most appropriate country against which to benchmark India. For example, we see that India is way under-educated for this point in its economic trajectory compared to China, and this is going to cost India dearly in its growth rate.
CHOAM · 416 weeks ago
OTOH, the data you showed also indicate that India achieved a Per Capita Income comparable to China in 2000-2005 with much <i> lower levels of educational attainments. Thus, India generate more income for a given level of educational attainment than China.
Wonder what that means.
(Speculation) Maybe it's connected to India's services-heavy economy. Maybe India's per-capita income measure is inflated at some level.
guest · 418 weeks ago