Brazil's Human Development Index (HDI) rose from 0.808 in 2006 to 0.813 in 2007 and ranked 75th on the list released by the UN Development Program (UNDP) on Monday.

The HDI goes from zero to one. The higher figures, the higher human development levels of a nation. Since Brazil's HDI is between 0.8 and 0.9, Brazil was considered a country with elevated human development levels.

Despite its rising HDI, Brazil is still behind several other Latin American nations such as Chile, which ranked 44th on the list, Argentina, 49th, Cuba, 51st, and Venezuela, 58th.

Meanwhile, Brazil is no longer the top BRIC country on the list. It was surpassed by Russia, which now ranks 71st. China ranks 92nd and India remains at the 134th place on the list.

To determine a country's human development levels, the UNDP takes into consideration its per capita GDP, illiteracy, school enrollment rates, and life expectancy indicators. In 2007, the rise in Brazil's HDI was mostly due to a GDP growth, since the education and life expectancy figures did not show significant change.

Despite its elevated HDI, Brazil is still a country with many social inequalities, ranking among the top 10 most unequal countries in the world, along with countries such as Namibia, Haiti, South Africa, Bolivia and Honduras.

Norway ranked first on the list, with a HDI of 0.971, followed by Australia, Iceland, Canada and Ireland. With a HDI of 0.34, Niger is the lowest among the 182 countries included in the ranking. Sierra Leone and Afghanistan also had very low HDIs of 0.352 and 0.365 respectively.

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