The Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 (GBD 2021), coordinated by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), estimated the burden of diseases, injuries, and risk factors for 204 countries and territories and selected subnational locations.

Developed by GBD researchers and used to help produce these estimates, the Socio-demographic Index (SDI) is a composite indicator of development status strongly correlated with health outcomes. It is the geometric mean of 0 to 1 indices of total fertility rate under the age of 25 (TFU25), mean education for those ages 15 and older (EDU15+), and lag distributed income (LDI) per capita. As a composite, a location with an SDI of 0 would have a theoretical minimum level of development relevant to health, while a location with an SDI of 1 would have a theoretical maximum level.

This dataset provides tables with SDI values for all estimated GBD 2021 locations for 1950–2021, as well as 2021 location quintile and reference SDI quintile values.