Pope Francis Daily

A child born in Norway today has high probabilities of living to be 82 years old and of studying for 18 years. A child born in Niger, on the other hand, has very low chances of living up to the age of 60 and attending school for at least five years. These are the abysmal differences between the world”€™s north and
south reported by the United Nations in its latest document on the state of human development, based on statistics from 189 countries on health, schooling and average income. Norway ranks at the top of the development list, followed by Switzerland, Australia, Ireland and Germany. Niger, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Chad and Burundi are ranked at the bottom of the list. According to the UN report, Ireland achieved the greatest improvements in human development, moving up thirteen places
between 2012 and 2017, followed by Turkey, the Dominican Republic and Botswana.
Countries at war suffered serious regression in their human development index with Syria dropping 27 places, Libya 26, and Yemen 20. The report concluded that inequalities
continue to persist across the world. In many countries the level of development
of women is six percent lower than that of men in terms of income and education, and globally, the employment rate for women is 49 percent, compared to 75 percent for men.