Mozambique rose slightly in the 2025 Human Development Index (HDI), released on Tuesday (6) by the United Nations, moving from 183rd to 182nd place among 193 countries assessed. However, the country remains classified in the ‘low’ Human Development category, the lowest on the scale.
The data is contained in the Human Development Report 2025, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under the theme ‘A Matter of Choice: People and Possibilities in the Age of Artificial Intelligence’. The document warns of the slow pace of global progress after years of pandemic crisis and points to growing inequalities between countries, with a particular focus on the worsening situation in countries with lower HDI, where Mozambique remains.
Among the nations of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP), six of the nine members recorded improvements in the ranking, including Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste and São Tomé and Príncipe. Mozambique, despite a slight rise of one position, remains among the two Portuguese-speaking countries with the lowest ranking, alongside Guinea-Bissau (174th position). Portugal remains the only CPLP member with a ‘very high’ HDI, now in 40th place, while Brazil ranks 84th in the ‘high’ development category.
The report is based on indicators such as life expectancy, average years of schooling and gross national income per capita, revealing that Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the lowest levels of human development globally.
The UNDP analysis also points out that, despite technological advances and the spread of artificial intelligence, countries such as Mozambique face serious structural challenges, particularly in data collection and management, access to technology, basic education and household income, which compromise their ability to take advantage of emerging digital opportunities.
‘The global growth in human development projected for this year is the lowest since 1990, excluding the pandemic period,’ the document states, emphasising that inequalities between countries with “Very High” and “Low” HDI continue to increase.
UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner argued for the need to ‘explore new ways to boost development’ and warned that, while artificial intelligence is not an automatic solution, policy choices and structural investments can reignite human progress, especially in contexts such as Africa.
Mozambique thus continues to face the challenge of translating economic growth into lasting social gains, in a context of pressure on public services, climate vulnerability and limited digital inclusion.
Source: Lusa
