Municipal Human Development Index for Brazilian Cities Based on ELECTRE TRI-C

The Human Development Index is an important indicator that evaluates well-being from the geometric mean of three dimensions: income, health and education. This indicator is often used to support decisions, but its relevance is intensified when measurements are taken at detailed levels. In this context, this study sets out to calculate the Municipal Human Development Index for 5,507 municipalities in Brazil. As a result, cities were classified into four development levels. Among Brazilian cities, 2.63% were classified as having a very high human development, 25.48% as high, 33.14% as medium, and 38.75% as low. The classification of approximately 54% of the municipalities was changed. The new approach enabled areas to be classified in a way that was more faithful to reality, without considering that half the population lives with a high quality of life. The multicriteria method ELECTRE TRI-C was used to mitigate some criticism of the index.