Brasília,7/19/2004(Agência Brasil) – Brazil's not-so-hot life expectancy of 68 proved to be the factor that put the country in 72nd place in the UN ranking of 177 nations on its Human Development Index. Just to get an idea of how bad that is, if the list was only based on life expectancy, Brazil would be in 111th place.

The HDI is based on three factors: education, live expectancy and income. It is a simple method used to measure development. "It works out to the minimum needs of a population," explains José Libanio, a UN aide. "It measures access to knowledge, health and money."

Repórter:Gabriela Guerreiro
(Translator: Allen Bennett)