Human Development & Quality of Life in Saudi Arabia
Human Development
A 2023 HDI of 0.900 puts Saudi Arabia at UNDP rank 37, classified as very high human development. The aggregate hides useful detail: Environmental pressure has a substantial effect on the adjusted measure: PHDI is 0.666 after a 26.0% adjustment. The profile also records that the income component uses GNI per capita of $50,299 in 2021 PPP dollars.
What sits inside Saudi Arabia's HDI
For the 2023 development snapshot, Saudi Arabia's health, education and income inputs are 78.7 life expectancy, 16.9 expected schooling, 11.6 mean schooling and $50,299 GNI per capita in 2021 PPP terms. They belong to the HDI calculation rather than separate DigifyWorld scores.
Gender and planetary-pressure adjustments
Alongside the headline HDI, the published data for Saudi Arabia include GDI 0.931, GII 0.228, PHDI 0.666. These measures remain distinct because they measure different aspects of development. For a like-for-like reading, preserve the source's country coverage rather than creating a broader claim than the source supports.
Quality-of-life coverage is conditional
No comparable OECD life-satisfaction observation is published on this page for Saudi Arabia. An unavailable observation remains omitted rather than estimated.
What Saudi Arabia's numbers say together
Within the UNDP framework, the complementary evidence for Saudi Arabia includes PHDI 0.666 after a 26.0% adjustment; GDI 0.931. They are related indicators, but they should not be combined into one country score.
UNDP reports a 2023 HDI of 0.900 for Saudi Arabia, with rank 37. That headline measure is useful for development comparison, but it is not a complete quality-of-life score.
The GDI value is 0.931 in group 3; it should be read alongside, not merged into, HDI.
The PHDI is 0.666, with a 26.0% adjustment from the HDI value in UNDP's 2023 table.
Frequently asked questions
What is Saudi Arabia's HDI?
In the Human Development Report 2025, Saudi Arabia is listed at HDI 0.900 for 2023, rank 37.
Is an inequality-adjusted HDI available for Saudi Arabia?
IHDI is omitted for Saudi Arabia because UNDP does not provide a usable value in the cited table.
Why is there no life satisfaction score on this page?
For Saudi Arabia, subjective well-being is shown only with a verified comparable observation. No value is inferred when the underlying source does not publish one.
Is HDI the same as quality of life?
No. HDI has three core dimensions: health, knowledge and standard of living. Subjective well-being is kept outside the HDI calculation. For the evidence on this page, use the UNDP definition rather than a proxy because a composite score cannot explain every outcome on its own.
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.