Belize in upper middle of development rankings

Every year the United Nations Development Programme issues its Human Development Report, an attempt to quantify the development of the world’s nations by measuring life expectancy, education, and standard of living. Belize has traditionally ranked near the top of a middle range of countries and this year is no exception. Out of one hundred and seventy-three nations, Belize comes in at number sixty-seven. This puts us well behind such regional neighbours as Barbados (number twenty-eight), Costa Rica (forty-two), Bahamas (forty-nine), St. Kitts (fifty-one), Cuba (fifty-two), Trinidad (fifty-four), Mexico (fifty-five) and Antigua (fifty-six), but ahead of Dominica (sixty-eight), St. Lucia (seventy-one), Jamaica (seventy-eight), St. Vincent (eighty), Guyana (ninety-two), El Salvador (one hundred and five), Honduras (one hundred and fifteen), Guatemala (one hundred and nineteen) and Nicaragua (one hundred and twenty-one). The authors of the study point to thirty-one countries in which progress toward the U.N.’s millennium development goals has either stalled or actually reversed. Belize is not among those nations, although our ranking has dropped slightly since last year’s report, in which we ranked number fifty-eight. By 2015 all United Nations members have pledged to eradicate extreme hunger and poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global system that promotes development.