Bulgaria ranks 53rd, out of 177 countries, in the human development index (HDI), published in the UNDP’s Global Human Development Report 2007/2008 released on November 27 2007.

Bulgaria ranked among the countries with a high HDI. Bulgaria has improved its ranking by one place annually over the past several years.

Bulgaria's neighbour Romania ranks 60th. The two countries entered together in the EU on January 1 2007.

HDI measures three aspects of human development, life expectancy in good health, education and good standard of living, and is not a total measure for human development.

Iceland ranked first, followed closely by the leader of the past six years, Norway. Australia, Canada, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland and Japan follow.

Niger, Guinea Bissau, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone take the last four places in the ranking.