HUMAN CAPABILITIES INDEX
Liberty × Human Development: United States
90.8
HCI Score
48
Liberty Score
+42.8
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 Saudi Arabia Mali Singapore Somalia Norway United States
HCI TRAJECTORY (1800–2023)
0 20 40 60 80 100 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2023 42.4 81.6 90.8 Year HCI Score
KEY INDICATORS — PERCENTILE RANK AMONG 91 COUNTRIES
75th + 50–74th 25–49th Below 25th INDICATOR VALUE RANK 50th Electricity Access 100 % 100th Mean Schooling 13.7 yrs 99th GDP/Capita (PPP) $59,100 $ 94th Adult Literacy 99 % 88th Gender Dev. Index 0.990 88th Life Satisfaction 6.7 /10 79th Life Expectancy 79 yrs 71st Infant Mortality ↓ 5 /1k 64th Safe Water Access 99 % 60th Voter Turnout 66 % 57th ↓ = lower is better (inverted percentile). Sorted by rank, highest first. Rank among 91 countries.
LIBERTY–CAPABILITY INSIGHT
United States scores 90.8 on the HCI against a Liberty score of 48 — a 42.8-point gap placing it firmly in the “capable autocracy” quadrant. The state delivers meaningful human development without corresponding political freedom. Cross-national evidence shows this configuration is historically unstable: most countries either democratize as capabilities rise or see stagnation set in.
Data: Human Capabilities Index (HCI) — 15 indicators, 91 countries, 1800–2023. Pearson r (Liberty × HCI) = 0.619. Download full dataset (XLSX) · JSON API