HUMAN CAPABILITIES INDEX
Liberty × Human Development: Saudi Arabia
88.7
HCI Score
7
Liberty Score
+81.7
Gap (HCI leads Liberty)
Capable Autocracy
Quadrant Classification
LIBERTY × HCI: ALL 91 COUNTRIES
CAPABLE AUTOCRACY FREE & CAPABLE NEITHER FREE BUT STRUGGLING LIBERTY SCORE → HCI SCORE → 0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100 r = 0.619 Mali Singapore Somalia Norway Saudi Arabia
HCI TRAJECTORY (1800–2023)
0 20 40 60 80 100 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2023 36.5 88.7 Year HCI Score
KEY INDICATORS — PERCENTILE RANK AMONG 91 COUNTRIES
75th + 50–74th 25–49th Below 25th INDICATOR VALUE RANK 50th Safe Water Access 100 % 100th Electricity Access 100 % 100th GDP/Capita (PPP) $44,300 $ 83rd Life Satisfaction 6.5 /10 76th Life Expectancy 78 yrs 67th Infant Mortality ↓ 6 /1k 59th Adult Literacy 98 % 57th Mean Schooling 10.4 yrs 48th Gender Dev. Index 0.900 21st ↓ = lower is better (inverted percentile). Sorted by rank, highest first. Rank among 91 countries.
LIBERTY–CAPABILITY INSIGHT
With a Liberty score of just 7 but an HCI of 88.7, Saudi Arabia exhibits one of the largest capability-liberty gaps in the dataset (+81.7 points). This extreme decoupling — high human development under authoritarian governance — defines the “capable autocracy” archetype. The historical pattern suggests these regimes can sustain material progress for decades, but the correlation data (r = 0.619) implies a long-run gravitational pull toward either liberalization or capability erosion.
Data: Human Capabilities Index (HCI) — 15 indicators, 91 countries, 1800–2023. Pearson r (Liberty × HCI) = 0.619. Download full dataset (XLSX) · JSON API