List of districts in Tamil Nadu by Human Development Index

The decline of the poverty rate has been very significant for Tamil Nadu, that it takes much of the pain to the political criticism against the Dravidian parties about corruption in the administration.

[6][5] The previous report of 2003 showed that Chennai, Kanchipuram, Kanyakumari, Thoothukudi and Coimbatore were the top five districts.

Though the two sets of reports are not strictly comparable given the separation of some districts between the two time points, some relative observations are made.

The new entrant in the top five district category is Virudhunagar in the latest Human development report.

Virudhunagar's rise to the top has been primarily due to its relatively higher per capita income which in turn can be connected to the spread of small scale industries, and a vibrant agricultural marketing economy.