ILOILO CITY -- People in Iloilo province enjoyed a better quality of life compared to those in other provinces in Western Visayas, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).
The 2009 Human Development Index (HDI) results released recently by the NSCB, showed that Iloilo ranked 1st among the six provinces of Western Visayas and 17th among the 80 provinces in the country with an HDI of 0.643.
NSCB-6 said all provinces of the region, except Aklan, were categorized under the medium HDI range.
The HDI is a composite index measuring achievements in three basic dimensions of human development, namely, to lead a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge and to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living.
NSCB said a province can be classified under high HDI if the index is 0.800 and above, medium if index is within the range of 0.500-0799, and low if its index is below 0.500.
As per HDI component, Iloilo and Negros Occidental were classified into high-HDI group for Life Expectancy having indices of 0.829 and 0.814 respectively, while the rest of the provinces were at medium-HDI group.
Life expectancy at birth in Iloilo was at 72.4 years, the highest among the six provinces of Western Visayas.
Iloilo was also on the lead in Education Index posting the highest composite index of 0.906, followed by Aklan and Guimaras with indices of 0.887 and 0.809 respectively.
NSCB said that it was interesting to note that all provinces of Western Visayas were classified under the high-HDI group for education index, estimated as a composite of the mean years of schooling and expected average years of schooling.
Data showed that the mean years of schooling for adult in Iloilo was 9.2 years, 0.5 year higher than the national average of 8.7 years, while the average years of schooling for the youths was 12.8 years in the provinces of Iloilo and Antique.
Aklan posted the highest average years of schooling which was 13.1 years.
On the other hand, Iloilo has the highest income index at 0.354 among the WV provinces, but all the provinces fell into the low-HDI group in the standard of living component. (PIO)