Selected Facts on Saudi Arabia from HDR 2007/2008

Population:	23.6 million (2005)
Total Population:	7.3 million (1975) / 23.6 million (2005 )/- 29.3 million (2015)
Annual Population Growth Rate %:	3.9 (1975-2005) 2.1 (2005-2015)
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (PPP US$):	$13,825 (2005)
Human Development Index (HDI) Rank:	61
Human Development Index (HDI) Value:	0.812
Gender Development Index (GDI) Rank:	70
Gender Development Index (GDI) Value:	0.783
Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) Rank:	92
Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) Value:	0.254
Female Legislators, Senior Officials and Managers (% of total)	31
Female Professional and Technical Workers (% of total)	6
Ratio of Estimated Female to Male Earned Income	0.16
Public Health Expenditure (% of GDP):	2.5 (2004)
Private Health Expenditure (% of GDP):	0.8 (2004)
Health Expenditure Per Capita (PPP US$):	601 (2004)
Life Expectancy at Birth (years):	53.9 (1970-1975) 71.6 (2000-2005)
Public Expenditure on Education	6.8 (as a % of GDP 2002-2005) 27.6 (as a % of total government expenditure 2002-2005)
Youth Literacy Rate (% aged 15-24):	87.9 (1985-1994) 95.8 (1995-2005)
Adult Literacy Rate (% aged 15<):	70.8 (1985-1994) 82.9 (1995-2005)
Electricity Consumption Per Capita:	6.902 (Kilowatt-hours) 2004 57.9 (% Change) 1990-2004
Unemployed People (thousands)	327 (1996-2005)
Unemployment Rate (% of labor force)	5.2 (1996-2005)
Population without Electricity (millions)	0.5 (2005)
Total Carbon Dioxide Emissions	254.8 (1990) 308.2 (2004)
Forest Area (% of total land area)	1.3 (2005)
Intentional Homicides (Per 100,000 People)	0.9 (2000-2004)
Prison Population	28,612 (2007)
Telephone Mainlines (per 1000 people):	75 (1990) 164 (2005)
Cellular Subscribers (per 1000 people):	1 (1990) 575 (2005)
Internet Users (per 1000 people):	0 (1990) 70 (2005)

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Saudi Arabia's HDI and GDI Trends

	HDI Rank	HDI Value	GDI Rank	GDI Value
1970	..	0.386	..	0.242
1975	..	0.587	..	..
1980	..	0.647	..	..
1985	..	0.669	..	..
1990	64	0.702	..	..
1991	69	0.697	..	..
1992	67	0.687	..	..
1993	84	0.688	..	..
1994	67	0.742	..	..
1995	76	0.762	..	0.514
1996	63	0.772	81	0.551
1997	73	0.774	85	0.581
1998	70	0.778	95	0.589
1999	78	0.740	78	0.703
2000	75	0.747	76	0.715
2001	68	0.754	75	0.719
2002	71	0.759	72	0.731
2003	73	0.769	68	0.743
2004	77	0.768	72	0.739
2005	77	0.772	65	0.749
2006	76	0.777	72	0.744
2007	61	0.812	70	0.78

The Human Development Index (HDI) measures the average progress of a country in human development.

The Gender-Related Development Index (GDI) was first introduced in the Human Development Report of year 1995. In estimating the GDI, a measure is constructed for the overall achievements of women and men in the three dimensions of the HDI—life expectancy, educational attainment, and adjusted real income—after taking note of inequalities between women and men.

In other words, the GDI is the HDI adjusted for gender inequality. And because gender inequality exists in every country, the GDI is always lower than the HDI. The HDI for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has moved steadily upward, when looking at its value. However, looking at the rank indicates that Saudi Arabia has been experiencing some minimal fluctuations mainly pointing at general drawbacks (particularly between the periods 2002-2005). The lower the HDI rank, the farther the country is from high human development.

For instance, Norway ranked 1 for in 2006, meaning that it was the best performer in human development amongst the world’s states. On the other hand Niger ranked last with an HDI rank of 177 according to HDR 2006, thus rating the lowest on human development. The Human Development Report places countries under three categories: High Human Development, Medium Human Development, and Low Human Development. So far the kingdom of Saudi Arabia has remained in the Medium Human Development category.

According to the HDR 2006, the country that has performed best under the Medium Human Development category was the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya with an HDI rank of 64, while Swaziland ranked the lowest under this same category with an HDI rank of 146. Therefore, Saudi Arabia ranked 13th under the Medium Human Development category with an HDI rank of 76; hence going one rank higher from last year.

It is worth noting here that the countries joining the Human Development classifications have been increasing over the years, thus increasing the total number of countries being evaluated and ranked according to the HDI.

The fact that Saudi Arabia’s HDI rank has deteriorated over certain years doesn’t mean that the country isn’t experiencing positive human development. In fact the Kingdom's HDI value has consistently been growing, showing improved human development. The deterioration of Saudi Arabia’s HDI rank could mean that in spite of its advancement in human development, other countries are developing at a faster rate, thereby reserving higher ranks.

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National Human Development Achievements and Challenges

During the last four decades the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has generally developed its human development infrastructures in terms of:

General educational expansion and coverage;
Urban & rural health coverage;
Provision of drinking water supplies;
Electric & communications utilities;
Municipal& sanitation services;
Road & highway networks;
Programmes for the diversification of the national economy, including industrial setting;
Urban & rural development.

These infrastructures have positively impacted the overall well-being of the Saudi citizen. They have yielded improvement in the people’s income and therefore poverty has become relative to the overall standard of living in the country and there is no absolute poverty. With all these achievements in place, the Kingdom remains keen on improving its performance to fulfill other substantive human development aspects which could include:

Gender issues and empowerment of women;
Democracy and popular participation;
Human rights-related issues.

Recently, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has undertaken a mission to implement social, political and economic reforms which would eventually contribute positively to addressing the above-mentioned challenges.One great achievement in this direction was the establishment of the independent National Society of Human Rights (NSHR) during year 2004. The Society has recognized the importance of human rights and has vowed to protect them, and to support government institutions in preparing relevant regulations, and to guarantee citizen's freedom to monitor their rights established and recognized by the Islamic Shari’a and applicable regulations. The establishment of the Society has also revealed the importance of organized public participation in building civil society institutions for the general benefit of society.

In its resolution, NSHR declared its commitment to learning from different systems and experiments around the world in organizing national committees and societies for human rights, and to contributing to international efforts for protection of human rights. Based on a request from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), UNDP Saudi Arabia has started a form of technical cooperation with the NSHR, assisting them to fulfill their mission in further protecting human rights in the Kingdom. UNDP organized an orientation workshop during September 2004 for the members of NSHR. Moreover, NSHR has been cooperating with UNDP on several instances related to HIV/AIDS. Another great achievement aimed for good governance and decentralization was the Kingdom's initial steps in late 2003 towards Municipal Elections. In June 2004, the government approached the UNDP for assistance in providing technical support to the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (MOMRA) in organizing municipal elections within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. A concrete programme between UNDP and MOMRA was signed in September 2004. Furthermore in the area of Governance, UNDP Saudi Arabia, jointly with Prince Sultan University, held the first session of a series of 3 forums on Local Governance in November 2005.

A major successful event related to Gender and the achievement of the MDGs was the "Women & MDGs Forum/ Workshops" which was held during December 2005. The event was held under the Auspices of Princess Adelah, the daughter of King Abdullah Bin AbdulAziz, who attended all three days; and with the sponsorship of the Saudi British Bank (SABB).

The forum aimed at gathering around 150 Saudi female activists with distinguished professional backgrounds and expertise from various sectors to discuss and share their views regarding Saudi women's participation in the Kingdom's achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The forum lasted for 3 days and made a significant impact in the media and within people. This came as an introductory forum that directly tackled gender issues, with the long-term objective of holding consequent events that essentially raise awareness and reinforce ties with the active communities to ultimately further human development.

A recent success by UNDP Saudi Arabia was "The Role of Media in Human Development" Seminar & Workshops, carried in partnership with the Ministry of Information & Culture and under the Auspices of HRH Prince Faisal bin Salman bin AbdulAziz, Chairman of the Saudi Research & Marketing Group which co-sponsored the Seminar.

This high-level seminar & workshops aimed at talking to the media representatives in Saudi Arabia about their role and responsibility regarding Human Development and the Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Around 120 media representatives from various media sectors with different media specializations attended the seminar and participated in the workshops. The 2-day seminar focused on 6 major topics which were inspired from the MDGs. The speakers and the moderators varied between Government Representatives, Academicians, Economic & Development Consultants, Famous & Distinguished Media Figures, and Leaders in Private Sector & Civil Society. more

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