In the recently released human development index , part of the Human Development Report for 2003 released yearly by the UNDP, Samoa is number 73 out of 173, middle of the pack.

Acccording to the site, the index "measures a country's achievement in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income". The whole report is something like 7 megabytes which is too much for me download tonight, but I'm going to try to plow through it at the office tomorrow.

It's really interesting to look through the list. Norway and other Scandanavians top it, with the Africans languishing at the bottom. There are only a few "Peace Corps" countries ahead of Samoa, a reasonably well-developed place with 100% literacy. Those that I know of are Panama and Bulgaria. There's probably a few others. Down at the bottom of the list are a score of African countries, many of which host PCVs. It's a difficutl life, but I'm sure it's very rewarding. In some ways I envy them.