HUMAN CAPABILITIES INDEX
Liberty × Human Development: Iran
81.5
HCI Score
7
Liberty Score
+74.5
Gap (HCI leads Liberty)
Capable Autocracy
Quadrant Classification
LIBERTY × HCI: ALL 91 COUNTRIES
CAPABLE AUTOCRACY FREE & CAPABLE NEITHER FREE BUT STRUGGLING LIBERTY SCORE → HCI SCORE → 0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100 r = 0.619 Saudi Arabia Mali Singapore Somalia Norway Iran
HCI TRAJECTORY (1800–2023)
0 20 40 60 80 100 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2023 16.8 33.2 81.5 Year HCI Score
KEY INDICATORS — PERCENTILE RANK AMONG 91 COUNTRIES
75th + 50–74th 25–49th Below 25th INDICATOR VALUE RANK 50th Electricity Access 100 % 100th Mean Schooling 10.8 yrs 58th Safe Water Access 97 % 51st Life Expectancy 76 yrs 50th GDP/Capita (PPP) $13,300 $ 46th Infant Mortality ↓ 11 /1k 41st Adult Literacy 88 % 27th Life Satisfaction 4.7 /10 25th Gender Dev. Index 0.880 17th Voter Turnout 41 % 14th ↓ = lower is better (inverted percentile). Sorted by rank, highest first. Rank among 91 countries.
LIBERTY–CAPABILITY INSIGHT
With a Liberty score of just 7 but an HCI of 81.5, Iran exhibits one of the largest capability-liberty gaps in the dataset (+74.5 points). This extreme decoupling — high human development under authoritarian governance — defines the “capable autocracy” archetype. The historical pattern suggests these regimes can sustain material progress for decades, but the correlation data (r = 0.619) implies a long-run gravitational pull toward either liberalization or capability erosion.
Data: Human Capabilities Index (HCI) — 15 indicators, 91 countries, 1800–2023. Pearson r (Liberty × HCI) = 0.619. Download full dataset (XLSX) · JSON API