Turkey joins top tier in human development, UN says
Government spending on health care and a long-term economic expansion helped Turkey achieve "very high human development" for the first time, according to a new UN report — but a shaky recovery from a currency shock last year could exacerbate inequality in the coming years.
ISTANBUL — Investments in health care and economic growth over the past two decades have pushed Turkey into the top tier of the United Nations’ human development league for the first time. But economists warned recent economic turmoil could reverse the trend in the years ahead.
Improvements in life expectancy and income helped Turkey inch higher to a score of 0.806 from a previous 0.791 in the Global 2019 Human Development Report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Monday. A score above 0.8 is “very high” in the human development index, which measures citizens’ longevity, access to education and standard of living.
Turkey ranked 59th out of the 62 countries in the top category and 189 countries on the entire table. The report warned that climate change and technological changes are increasing inequality around the world and could contribute to civil unrest, especially in developing countries.
Turkey has avoided the type of protests sparked by economic anger and frustration with inequity that have gripped nations from Chile to Iran to Lebanon to France, due at least in part to tough policing against public demonstrations. (Seven women were arrested in Istanbul for performing the Chilean "Las Tesis" dance to protest male violence on Sunday.)
