Physical Quality of Life Index

Indian Economy glossary

Also called: PQLI · Topic: Measuring Development: Income, HDI and Sustainability · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) measures how well a country meets basic human needs. Morris David Morris created it in 1979 for the Overseas Development Council. It uses three indicators:

  • infant mortality,
  • life expectancy at age one,
  • basic literacy.

Each indicator is scaled from 0 to 100, and the three are simply averaged. It has no income component, because it was designed as an alternative to GNP. It was an early step towards the HDI.

Example

A state like Kerala would score well on the PQLI. It has a low IMR (6 per 1,000 live births, 2020) and high literacy (94%, 2017-18), even though its per capita income is below Haryana's.

Don't confuse with

  • Human Development Index (HDI): the HDI includes income (GNI per capita in PPP $). It uses life expectancy at birth, not at age one. Since 2010 it has combined its parts by a geometric mean, not a simple average.

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