Human Development & Quality of Life in Palau
Human Development
Palau enters the 2025 UNDP report with a 2023 HDI of 0.786 and rank 84, within the high human development group. Reading beyond the headline, the health component is anchored by life expectancy of 69.3 years. A second lens is equally relevant here: Education combines 14.1 expected years of schooling with 13.3 mean years already attained.
What sits inside Palau's HDI
For Palau, health contributes through life expectancy of 69.3; education through 14.1 expected and 13.3 mean years of schooling; and income through GNI per capita of $16,035 in 2021 PPP dollars. Those are the published inputs behind the 2023 HDI. For a like-for-like reading, separate the measure from subjective well-being so the number is not mistaken for another indicator.
Inequality changes the headline
The inequality-adjusted measure for Palau applies a distribution penalty to the same three HDI dimensions. It should therefore be read alongside HDI, not as a separate life-satisfaction score.
Gender and planetary-pressure adjustments
Alongside the headline HDI, the published data for Palau include GDI 0.992. Their scopes differ, which is why the page presents them side by side rather than blending them.
Quality-of-life coverage is conditional
The OECD comparison used here does not provide a life-satisfaction observation that this Palau page can reproduce. The profile does not turn an absent source observation into a calculated replacement.
What Palau's numbers say together
Palau's additional indicators read as IHDI 0.616 with a 21.6% loss; GDI 0.992. Each measure has a different definition, so they are not combined.
HDI for Palau stands at 0.786 in 2023, with UNDP rank 84. It is a development benchmark based on three dimensions, not an all-purpose national score.
The IHDI is 0.616, and UNDP reports an overall loss of 21.6% relative to the headline index.
The GDI value is 0.992 in group 1; it should be read alongside, not merged into, HDI.
Frequently asked questions
What is Palau's HDI?
In the Human Development Report 2025, Palau is listed at HDI 0.786 for 2023, rank 84.
How does inequality affect Palau's HDI?
Palau's Inequality-adjusted HDI is 0.616. The published overall loss is 21.6% relative to HDI.
Why is there no life satisfaction score on this page?
This profile does not fill the quality-of-life section for Palau simply to complete the layout. Missing source coverage is shown as a limitation, not filled with an estimate.
Is HDI the same as quality of life?
No. The HDI calculation does not include every aspect of quality of life. The page treats life satisfaction as a separate experience-based measure, not part of the UNDP index. When using this figure elsewhere, separate the measure from subjective well-being before drawing conclusions from small differences.
Sources & methodology
Sources for the development indicators and definitions shown above.
View sources used for this page
Primary source for 2023 HDI and its components, plus IHDI, GDI, GII and PHDI where reported.
Report edition underlying the 2023 human-development indices and ranking.
Data note: Reference years are shown with each indicator; unavailable observations remain unfilled.