Human Development & Quality of Life in South Sudan
Human Development
South Sudan enters the 2025 UNDP report with a 2023 HDI of 0.388 and rank 193, within the low human development group. More revealing for this profile, the income component uses GNI per capita of $688 in 2021 PPP dollars. At the same time, the inequality adjustment is one of the most consequential parts of this profile: IHDI falls to 0.226, a 41.8% loss.
What sits inside South Sudan's HDI
The 2023 HDI profile for South Sudan rests on life expectancy of 57.6, schooling measures of 5.6 expected years and 5.7 mean years, plus GNI per capita of $688 in 2021 PPP dollars. The page keeps those components visible so the composite index is not read in isolation.
Inequality changes the headline
IHDI reframes South Sudan's HDI by accounting for unequal outcomes within the population. That is a different question from how satisfied people say they are with life.
Gender and planetary-pressure adjustments
The broader UNDP dashboard for South Sudan adds PHDI 0.383 to the HDI result. Their scopes differ, which is why the page presents them side by side rather than blending them.
Quality-of-life coverage is conditional
For South Sudan, the page has no verified OECD life-satisfaction observation to report, the absence of a published observation is preserved explicitly.
What South Sudan's numbers say together
For South Sudan, inequality reduces the HDI to 0.226 with an overall loss of 41.8%; the planetary-pressure adjustment changes the index by 1.3%. Read together, these measures show why human development, distribution, environmental pressure and experienced well-being should not be treated as interchangeable.
UNDP reports a 2023 HDI of 0.388 for South Sudan, with rank 193. That headline measure is useful for development comparison, but it is not a complete quality-of-life score. For the evidence on this page, read the value with its stated unit instead of collapsing separate dimensions into one label.
The IHDI is 0.226, and UNDP reports an overall loss of 41.8% relative to the headline index.
The PHDI is 0.383, with a 1.3% adjustment from the HDI value in UNDP's 2023 table.
Frequently asked questions
What is South Sudan's HDI?
UNDP's Human Development Report 2025 gives South Sudan an HDI of 0.388 for 2023 and rank 193.
How does inequality affect South Sudan's HDI?
After the inequality adjustment, South Sudan's index falls to 0.226; UNDP quantifies the overall loss at 41.8%.
Why is there no life satisfaction score on this page?
A quality-of-life indicator is included for South Sudan only when a dated comparable value is supported by the cited dataset. The profile does not turn an absent source observation into a calculated replacement.
Is HDI the same as quality of life?
No. The HDI calculation does not include every aspect of quality of life. A life-satisfaction result is not an input to HDI and remains a separate quality-of-life signal.
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.