Human Development & Quality of Life in Zambia
Human Development
Zambia enters the 2025 UNDP report with a 2023 HDI of 0.595 and rank 154, within the medium human development group. The headline needs context: The planetary-pressure adjustment is limited at 1.7%, leaving PHDI at 0.585. Another part of the dashboard shows that the income component uses GNI per capita of $3,447 in 2021 PPP dollars.
What sits inside Zambia's HDI
Zambia's HDI can be read through four underlying inputs for 2023: 66.3 life expectancy, 11.0 expected schooling, 7.4 mean schooling and GNI per capita of $3,447 in 2021 PPP dollars. The components are inputs to HDI, not independent country league tables.
Inequality changes the headline
IHDI reframes Zambia'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
Alongside the headline HDI, the published data for Zambia include GDI 0.949, GII 0.524, PHDI 0.585. Each measure has a different definition, so they are not combined. For the profile as a whole, keep the observation year attached instead of treating all development measures as interchangeable.
Quality-of-life coverage is conditional
A comparable life-satisfaction observation was not available in the OECD extract used for Zambia. An unavailable observation remains omitted rather than estimated.
What Zambia's numbers say together
When reading this profile, the complementary evidence for Zambia includes IHDI 0.361 with a 39.3% loss; PHDI 0.585 after a 1.7% adjustment; GDI 0.949. They are related indicators, but they should not be combined into one country score.
Zambia's HDI is 0.595 for 2023, placing it at UNDP rank 154. The index summarizes health, education and income rather than every dimension of day-to-day well-being.
The IHDI is 0.361, and UNDP reports an overall loss of 39.3% relative to the headline index.
The GDI value is 0.949 in group 3; it should be read alongside, not merged into, HDI.
The PHDI is 0.585, with a 1.7% adjustment from the HDI value in UNDP's 2023 table.
Frequently asked questions
What is Zambia's HDI?
UNDP's Human Development Report 2025 gives Zambia an HDI of 0.595 for 2023 and rank 154.
How does inequality affect Zambia's HDI?
After the inequality adjustment, Zambia's index falls to 0.361; UNDP quantifies the overall loss at 39.3%.
Why is there no life satisfaction score on this page?
For Zambia, subjective well-being is shown only with a verified comparable observation, the absence of a published observation is preserved explicitly. For the evidence on this page, separate the measure from subjective well-being because the surrounding measures answer different questions.
Is HDI the same as quality of life?
No. The Human Development Index summarizes health, education and income outcomes. Life satisfaction is shown only as a separate subjective well-being measure.
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.