Method
The Taken for Granted score follows the structure of the UNDP Human Development Index: scale each indicator between fixed goalposts, average indicators inside an area, then take the geometric mean of the areas. The technical notes are at the UNDP HDR. This site is not the HDI.
Where this departs from the HDI
- Knowledge is mean years of schooling only. The HDI also uses expected years of schooling.
- Health includes physician density and the UHC index beside life expectancy and child mortality. The HDI health dimension is life expectancy.
- Income is GDP per capita PPP, not GNI per capita. The HDI income goalposts are reused on that GDP series.
- PISA screen time is context, not an input. A missing PISA row is not filled from the Connection average.
- There are five areas, not three. Freedom and political-rights rankings are excluded.
- A value older than 10 years from 2025 (or the shorter window on that indicator) is too old to score. It can still appear in a table, marked as such.
Rank bands
Scores within 0.5 points of the best score in their band share a competition rank. No band spans that gap or more. Why a range? Scores within 0.5 of the best score in the band share one rank. The published rank is that full range, for example Rank 21–24 of 175. "Top N%" is never printed above 50. The same rank sentence appears on the leaderboard, country pages, and compare.
A country is ranked only when every area has its minimum number of indicators and at least 9 of the scored indicators are present. A missing value is not treated as the lowest value. Mobile subscriptions above 100 per 100 people are capped at 100 for the score. The reported count stays on the page.
Comparisons use one indicator definition at a time. Money across countries is PPP. Counts are labeled as counts. Peer medians use World Bank income group, World Bank region, and population band. The wording rules are in the comparison principles section of the README and in docs/STYLE.md.
Goalposts
- Physicians
Goalposts 0 to 5. Cap 5. Age window 10 years. Values above 5 physicians per 1,000 score as the cap, so a few high-density countries do not compress the scale.
- Access to electricity
Goalposts 0 to 100.
- Moderate or severe food insecurity
Lower is a higher index. Goalposts 0 to 100.
- GDP per capita, PPP
Natural log. Goalposts 100 to 75000. Cap 75000. Age window 5 years. Natural log, then min-max between 100 and 75,000 international dollars. Same goalposts as the UNDP HDI income index, applied here to GDP per capita PPP because that is the series in this dataset. Current international dollars, not inflation-adjusted.
- Internet users
Goalposts 0 to 100. Age window 5 years.
- Life expectancy at birth
Goalposts 20 to 85. UNDP HDI goalposts: 20 to 85 years.
- Mean years of schooling
Goalposts 0 to 15. Cap 15. UNDP HDI goalposts for mean years of schooling: 0 to 15.
- Mobile cellular subscriptions
Goalposts 0 to 100. Cap 100. Subscriptions per 100 people are capped at 100 before scoring. The reported count can exceed 100 because it counts SIM cards, not people.
- People below the international poverty line
Lower is a higher index. Goalposts 0 to 100. Age window 10 years.
- Safely managed sanitation
Goalposts 0 to 100.
- Safely managed drinking water
Goalposts 0 to 100.
- UHC service coverage index
Goalposts 0 to 100.
- Under-five mortality
Lower is a higher index. Goalposts 0 to 250. Cap 250. Fixed cap of 250 deaths per 1,000 live births, applied before scaling, so one high observation does not set the scale.