Human Development Report Office - United Nations Development Programme

What Human Development Report Office - United Nations Development Programme does

The Human Development Report Office (HDRO) is the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office responsible for producing the annual Human Development Report and its associated measurement suite. Founded in 1990 as the editorial home of the Human Development Index (HDI), HDRO is headquartered in New York, operates with 68 staff, and functions as a non-commercial UN program funded through member-state assessed and voluntary contributions channeled via the UNDP regular budget. All publications, datasets, and platforms are distributed free of charge under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license.

HDRO's core products are the annual Human Development Report; the Human Development Index (HDI), a composite measure of health, education, and standard of living covering 193 countries and territories; and the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), jointly developed with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) using household-survey microdata (DHS and MICS) and covering 112 developing countries, 1,359 subnational regions, and 6.3 billion people. The underlying technology stack centers on Stata and R for statistical computation, with publicly released do-files and scripts enabling replication. Complementing these are the Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI), the Inequality-adjusted and Planetary-pressures-adjusted HDI variants, the Human Climate Horizons platform developed with the Climate Impact Lab for national and subnational climate-impact projections, and the 2025 Global Survey on AI and Human Development.

HDRO serves three primary user groups: national governments and statistical offices in developing countries (its primary segment), which use MPI and HDI data for poverty-reduction policy targeting and SDG monitoring; researchers and academics, who consume the harmonized time-series for development economics research; and development organizations, NGOs, and increasingly the private sector (e.g., the 2025 Generali partnership). Distribution is fully self-serve via the hdr.undp.org website, the Human Climate Horizons platform, Constant Contact email newsletters, social channels (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook), and high-profile virtual launch events. Because HDRO charges nothing for its outputs, its "go-to-market" is institutional convening, citation-building, and partnership-driven dissemination rather than sales.

Name

Human Development Report Office - United Nations Development Programme

Legal name

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

Website

https://hdr.undp.org

Company type

Public

Founded year

1990

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

The UN office that publishes the annual Human Development Report and associated indices (HDI, MPI, GSNI, Human Climate Horizons), serving 193 governments and the global research community with freely available human development data and analytics.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Development Research and Analytics

NAICS

Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (54172)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus & Resilience Programming (BPADAEAK)

Keywords

• Human development research
• Poverty measurement indices
• Multidimensional poverty analysis
• Development policy analytics
• Global development indicators

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. UN Core Funding: HDRO is a UN office funded through the regular budget of the United Nations Development Programme. Member state contributions fund operations and publications. All reports and data products are provided free of charge under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

HDRO produces annual flagship research reports and composite indices measuring global human development, including the Human Development Report, the Human Development Index (HDI), the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), and the Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI). It also operates interactive data platforms such as the Human Climate Horizons platform and the Country Insights Dashboard, with all publications and data products provided free of charge under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 IGO license.

Product overview

The Human Development Report Office (HDRO) of UNDP produces a comprehensive suite of research products and data platforms focused on measuring and analyzing human development globally. The core offerings include the annual Human Development Report (HDR) with the Human Development Index (HDI) rankings, the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), and the Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI). These are complemented by data platforms including the Human Climate Horizons platform (developed with Climate Impact Lab) providing climate impact projections, the Country Insights Dashboard for interactive country-level analysis, and the Global Survey on AI and Human Development. HDRO also publishes supplementary analytical products like the RESILIENCE BY DESIGN report series. The office provides open-access statistical programmes (Stata and R) enabling replication of MPI calculations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Human Development Index (HDI): A composite index measuring average achievement in three basic dimensions of human development: health, education, and standard of living.
• Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)
• Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI)
• Human Climate Horizons

Products and services

• Human Development Report (HDR) UNDP's flagship annual publication providing comprehensive analysis of global human development trends, including the Human Development Index (HDI) rankings and in-depth thematic analysis of development issues.
• Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) An internationally comparable measure of acute multidimensional poverty covering 112 developing countries, identifying deprivations in health, education, and standard of living across 10 indicators.
• Human Development Index (HDI) A summary measure of average achievement in key human development dimensions including health, education, and standard of living, used to assess national development progress beyond economic growth alone.
• Human Climate Horizons Platform Global platform developed with Climate Impact Lab providing national and subnational projections of climate hazards and their potential impacts on people, including health, mortality, labour productivity, and agricultural/coastal effects from sea level rise.
• Global Survey on AI and Human Development Survey providing results and insights on the impacts of artificial intelligence on human development across countries worldwide.
• Gender Social Norms Index (GSNI) Composite index measuring gender gaps in political, economic, and educational domains, assessing social norms that may perpetuate gender inequality.
• Country Insights Dashboard Interactive dashboard providing human development insights for 193 countries and territories, capturing achievements in HDI and complementary measurements including gender gaps, inequality, planetary pressures, and poverty.
• Thematic Composite Indices Set of complementary indices including inequality-adjusted HDI, planetary pressures-adjusted HDI, and thematic dashboards on quality of human development, life-course gender gaps, women's empowerment, and environmental/sustainability metrics.
• MPI Statistical Programmes Stata do-files and R scripts used in the calculation of the Multidimensional Poverty Index, publicly available for national governments, civil society, and research communities to replicate MPI results.
• RESILIENCE BY DESIGN Report Joint publication with Assicurazioni Generali examining how climate change reshapes health risks and threatens human development progress, including analysis of climate risk and resilience for health and human development.

Quantifiable outcome

• 1.1 billion people identified as multidimensionally poor across 112 countries
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 17 October 2025Annual joint launch of the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report, with OPHI Director Sabina Alkire presenting key findings alongside HDRO Director Pedro Conceicao. The 2025 launch titled 'Overlapping Hardships: Poverty and Climate Hazards' examined how climate hazards affect poor populations.
• Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A.flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2025Joint publication 'RESILIENCE BY DESIGN: Strengthening Health and Human Development in a Changing Climate' examining how climate change reshapes health risks and threatens human development progress. Generali, a major insurance company, provides private sector perspective on climate risk and resilience, while HDRO contributes human development analysis and data.
• Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018Long-standing strategic partnership for the joint development and publication of the global Multidimensional Poverty Index. OPHI, based at the University of Oxford, provides academic leadership and research methodology, while HDRO provides institutional support and global dissemination through the Human Development Report series.
• Climate Impact LabcoreTechnology or IntegrationPartnership to develop the Human Climate Horizons platform providing national and subnational projections of climate hazards and their potential impacts on human development outcomes including health, mortality, labour productivity, and agricultural/coastal impacts.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• UN Statistics Division: UNSD is the central UN body responsible for global statistical standards and SDG indicator frameworks. It produces comparable cross-country data and methodological guidance that overlaps with HDRO's statistical work on human development indicators.
• Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI): OPHI is HDRO's core joint methodology partner on the Global MPI. It is a university-based research center producing the same multidimensional poverty measurement framework and publishing related academic research, making it the most direct functional peer.
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS): UIS is the official UN statistical agency for education, science, culture, and communication. It produces globally comparable education indicators that feed directly into HDRO's HDI education dimension and other composite indices.
• Climate Impact Lab: Climate Impact Lab is HDRO's core partner on the Human Climate Horizons platform, producing the underlying climate impact projections at national and subnational levels. Its analytical outputs feed directly into HDRO's flagship products.

Broad incumbents

• World Bank: The World Bank publishes the international $2.15/day poverty line, Human Capital Index, and country-level development statistics. It is the most direct institutional competitor in global development measurement and poverty analytics.
• OECD: OECD produces the Better Life Index and a wide portfolio of comparative socioeconomic and development statistics across member and partner countries, serving overlapping policymaker audiences in development analytics.
• WHO (World Health Organization): WHO produces the Global Health Observatory and SDG health indicators (including life expectancy) used in HDRO's HDI. It also publishes population health analytics that parallel HDRO's health-development integration work.
• UNDP (United Nations Development Programme): HDRO is a division of UNDP, which operates the broader development program portfolio globally. UNDP produces overlapping development data, country diagnostics, and policy research that complement or compete with HDRO's index work.

Emerging players

• World Resources Institute (WRI): WRI produces global environmental and sustainability indicators, including climate and food-system data that overlap with HDRO's Human Climate Horizons platform. Both organizations serve policymakers integrating climate and development outcomes.
• UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti: UNICEF Innocenti conducts research on child well-being, poverty, and social policy. Its focus on multidimensional child deprivation overlaps directly with HDRO's MPI child poverty findings (584 million poor children under 18).

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/HDRUNDP
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@HumanDevelopmentReportOffice
• Facebookfacebook.com/HumanDevelopmentReport
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/united-nations-development-program---human-development-report-office
• Instagraminstagram.com/HDRUNDP

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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