Total Human Needs Index (THNI)


The following describes the calculation of the THNI.

The THNI is a composition of 13 demographics: 6 Basic Life Needs, 6 Spiritual Life Needs and Population.
Basic Life Needs
Life Expectancy Life Expectancy in years
HDI Human Development Index
(Learn More)
HSI Human Suffering Index
(Learn More)
Adult Illiteracy Illiteracy as a percentage of adult population
Water Access Percentage of population without access to clean water
Under 5 Mortality Under 5 deaths per 1000

Spiritual Life Needs
AC Christians affiliated with a church
Unevangelized Percentage of the population not evangelized
GCC Great Commission Christians
Offers Offers per capita per annum
Christian Workers Christian Workers per Million
Response Responsiveness to the Gospel

THNI Calculation Steps

  1. Rescale all values to 1-100 where higher values indicate greater need / opportunity

  2. Calculate BLNI = [Life Expectancy]*[HDI]*[HIS]*[Illiteracy Rate]*[Water Access]*[Under 5 Mortality]

  3. Take nth root of BLNI where n is the number of indices (n = 6)

  4. Calculate SLNI = [AC]*[% Unevangelized]*[GCC]*[Offers]*[Christian Workers]*[Response]

  5. Take nth root of SLNI where n is the number of indices (n = 6)

  6. Calculate THNI = 99*(t -MIN(t))/( MAX(t)- MIN(t)) + 1 where t = [BLNI]*[SLNI]

Maps are then based on [THNI]x[Population] with possible additional scaling
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