Laman Laporan Pembangunan Manusia menyimpulkan bahawa laporan ini sebagai "Satu indeks komposit yang mengukur kehilangan dalam tiga dimensi yang dimasukkan dalam indeks pembangunan manusia — satu kehidupan yang panjang dan selamat, berpengetahuan dan satu taraf kehidupan dan memuaskan — dan juga menanggapi pengenepian sosial ." Formula ini dikira sebagai berikut:

• HPI-2 = [ 1 4 ( P 1 α + P 2 α + P 3 α + P 4 α ) ] 1 α {\displaystyle \left[{\frac {1}{4}}\left(P_{1}^{\alpha }+P_{2}^{\alpha }+P_{3}^{\alpha }+P_{4}^{\alpha }\right)\right]^{\frac {1}{\alpha }}}

P 1 {\displaystyle P_{1}} : Probability at birth of not surviving to age 60 (times 100)
P 2 {\displaystyle P_{2}} : Adults lacking functional literacy skills
P 3 {\displaystyle P_{3}} : Population below income poverty line (50% of median adjusted household disposable income)
P 4 {\displaystyle P_{4}} : Rate of long-term unemployment (lasting 12 months or more)
α {\displaystyle \alpha } : 3

Laporan terakhir, 2006, hanya mempunyai kedudukan bagi 18 daripada 21 negara dengan Indeks Pembangunan Manusia tertinggi. Kedudukan mereka adalah seperti berikut (dengan negara yang mempunyai kemiskinan terendah berada pada paling atas):

Negara-negara yang berada pada 21 teratas oleh HDI yang tidak termasuk di dalam senarai adalah Iceland, Austria dan New Zealand.

Perharikan bahawa tidak semua negara dimasukkan kerana data bagi petunjuk tidak selalunya wujud. Jadi kedudukan selalu berubah sekiranya mereka ada. Terutama pada negara-negara paling bawah akan dijatuhkan sekiranya senarai itu dipanjangkan. Bagi nilai-nilai spesifik unutk negara-negara lain di dakam senarai, sila lihat sumber di bawah.

Petunjuk yang digunakan adalah:

• Probability at birth of not surviving to age 60 (% of cohort), 2000-2005. Varies from 7.1% for Japan to 11.8 for the USA. This is the indicator that is best known for all countries (including the ones not on the list). Worse values start only at position 35 of the HDI, indicating that many countries could climb on an extended list based on this, knocking down lower ranked countries on the above list.
• People lacking functional literacy skills (% of people scoring in the range called “Level 1” in the International Adult Literacy Survey, age 16-65, 1994-2003). Varies from 7.5% for Sweden to 47.0% for Italy. These figures are higher than most commonly cited illiteracy rates due to the choice of the literacy test.
• Long-term unemployment (12 months or more, % of labour force), 2005. Varies from 0.4% for Norway to 5.0% for Germany. This indicator has by far the greatest variation, with a value as high as 9.3% at HDI position 37.
• Population below 50% of median adjusted household disposable income (%), 1994-2002. Varies from 5.4% for Finland to 17% for the USA.

The population with an income below 11$ per day is not used in the calculation (it is known for too few countries), but this shows a striking variation with scores over 10% for Australia, the UK and the USA, but an extremely low score of 0.3% for Luxembourg, so this could have changed the list considerably if it had been included. [perlu rujukan]