L’INDICE DE DÉVELOPPEMENT HUMAIN : UNE ÉVALUATION POUR LA RÉUNION

The development gap in La Réunion is a matter of debate to the extent that the concept of development is multifaceted and assessing the level or the gap in this matter is complex. The Human Development Index (HDI) of the United Nations Development Program is undoubtedly the most famous composite index of development. This index summarizes three basic dimensions of development: monetary resources, health and education. For the first time, this paper aims to assess the level of HDI for La Réunion, providing transparent information on the hypotheses and approximations that are required to compute the index. For the year 2004, the HDI level is found to be 0.870 in La Réunion which thus virtually ranks 35th in the World while France then ranked 16th. The development gap appears to be more marked in the monetary income dimension than in the health and education dimensions.