The Republic of Moldova ranks 113th out of 187 world countries according to the Human Development Index that is a summary indicator of people’s well-being, education and GDP per capita, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to the Report, Moldova’s HDI value is 0.660 positioning the country in the medium human development category at 113 out of 187 countries and territories in 2012. In the 2011 Human Development Report, the Republic of Moldova was ranked 111 out of 187 countries but the authors of the Report argue that values and rankings are not comparable with previous reports as the methods and underlying data have changed. Looking at the progresses made by the Republic of Moldova in each of the HDI indicators, between 1980 and 2012 life expectancy at birth increased by 5.0 years, mean years of schooling increased by 3.3 years and expected years of schooling decreased by 0.2 years. At the same time, GNI per capita decreased by about 28 percent between 1990 and 2012. Gender Inequality Index (GII), which measures disparities in labour force, health, education and empowerment, affecting women, has a value of 0.303, ranking Moldova 49 out of 148 countries in the 2012 index. In Moldova, 19.8 percent of parliamentary seats are held by women, and 91.6 percent of adult women have reached a secondary or higher level of education compared to 95.3 percent of their male counterparts. Norway, Australia and the United States lead the HDI ranking, while conflict-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo and drought-stricken Niger have the lowest scores in the HDI’s measurement of national achievement in health, education and income. According to the Report, the South still faces shared serious long-term challenges – aging, environmental pressures, social inequalities and the need for meaningful civic engagement. These require both national and global solutions if developing countries are to maintain their human development momentum.