Nairobi — Kenya ranks top in human development in the region, however Uganda ranks better when poverty levels in Kenya are taken into consideration, according to the United Nation's 2009 Human Development report.

The report, Overcoming barriers: Human mobility and development, gave Kenya a human development index (HDI) of 0.541, which gives the country a ranking of 147 out of 182 countries.

Uganda got a HDI of 0.514 and a ranking of 157. Tanzania got 0.530, and is ranked 151.

The Human Development Index is used to measure the average development progress of a country and determines the ranking of a country as underdeveloped, developing or developed.

On the issue of poverty -- focusing on the most deprived in multiple dimensions of poverty -- the report gave Uganda a Human Poverty Index (HPI-1) value of 28.8 per cent, ranking it 91st among 135 countries, ahead of Kenya, which is ranked 92nd with an HPI-1 value of 29.5 per cent.

Tanzania is ranked 93rd with a HPI-1 value of 30.0 per cent.

The HPI-1 measures severe deprivation in health by the proportion of people who are not expected to survive to age of 40.

Education is measured by the adult illiteracy rate.

A decent standard of living is measured by the unweighted average of people not using an improved water source and the proportion of children under the age of five who are underweight for their age.

Between the year 2000 and 2007, Kenya's HDI rose by 0.51 per cent annually from 0.522 to 0.541 today.

In the same period, Uganda's HDI rose by 1.59 per cent annually from 0.392 to 0.514 today, while Tanzania's HDI rose by 1.15 per cent annually from 0.436 to 0.530 today.

This year's HDI, from data collected in 2007, highlights the very large gaps in wellbeing and life chances that continue to divide our increasingly interconnected world.

By looking at some of the most fundamental aspects of people's lives and opportunities, the HDI provides a much more complete picture of a country's development than other indicators, such as Gross Domestic Product per capita.

Each year since 1990, the Human Development Report has published the Human Development Index which looks beyond the GDP to a broader definition of wellbeing.

On the migration front, Kenya has an emigration rate of 1.4 per cent, Uganda 0.7 per cent and Tanzania 0.8 per cent.

The major continent of destination for migrants from Kenya is Africa with 41.5 per cent of emigrants living in the continent.

Kenya has 790,I00 migrants, which represents 2.2 per cent of the total population, Uganda has 652,400 or 2.3 per cent of the population, while Tanzania has 797,7000 migrants, representing 2 per cent of the population.