HUMAN CAPABILITIES INDEX
Liberty × Human Development: South Africa
76.4
HCI Score
62
Liberty Score
+14.4
Gap (HCI leads Liberty)
Free & Capable
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 Saudi Arabia Mali Singapore Somalia Norway South Africa
HCI TRAJECTORY (1800–2023)
0 20 40 60 80 100 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2023 22.0 40.9 76.4 Year HCI Score
KEY INDICATORS — PERCENTILE RANK AMONG 91 COUNTRIES
75th + 50–74th 25–49th Below 25th INDICATOR VALUE RANK 50th Gender Dev. Index 0.990 88th Mean Schooling 10.4 yrs 48th GDP/Capita (PPP) $11,700 $ 41st Voter Turnout 59 % 39th Adult Literacy 95 % 38th Life Satisfaction 5.0 /10 30th Safe Water Access 93 % 30th Electricity Access 86 % 19th Infant Mortality ↓ 23 /1k 18th Life Expectancy 65 yrs 9th ↓ = lower is better (inverted percentile). Sorted by rank, highest first. Rank among 91 countries.
LIBERTY–CAPABILITY INSIGHT
South Africa sits in the “Free & Capable” quadrant — Liberty at 62, HCI at 76.4. The +14.4-point gap suggests capabilities that outpace the current liberty score. Among the 38 countries in this quadrant, South Africa demonstrates the positive correlation between freedom and flourishing.
Data: Human Capabilities Index (HCI) — 15 indicators, 91 countries, 1800–2023. Pearson r (Liberty × HCI) = 0.619. Download full dataset (XLSX) · JSON API