Macedonia ranked 81st in 2015 Human Development Report: UNDP

The 2015 Human Development Report by the UN Development Program (UNDP) ranks Macedonia 81st among 188 countries,placing the country in the high human development category, local media reported Monday.

Entitled Work for Human Development, the report says that life expectancy has grown by 6.8 years, among the most notable gains, and expected years of schooling have increased by 1.1 years in Macedonia since 1980.

Gross National Income per head in the southern European country has increased by nearly 24.7 percent since 1990.

Across the region, Slovenia is ranked 25th, Greece 29th, Croatia 47th, Montenegro 49th, Bulgaria 59th, Serbia 66th, Bosnia and Herzegovina 85th, and Albania 85th in terms of the 2015 human development index.

The report urges governments to act now to ensure no one is left behind in the fast changing world of work. It calls for equitable and decent work for all to address the new Sustainable Development Goals adopted by all UN member states for 2015-2030. It encourages governments to look beyond jobs to consider the many kinds of work, such as unpaid care, voluntary, or creative work that are important for human development.

"With better health and education outcomes and reductions in extreme poverty, two billion people have moved out of low human development levels in the last 25 years," the report was quoted as saying. Endi