First of all, it does not reflect all the social welfare status of a country. Among the three indicators that make up PQLI, two indicators reflect the health status, which actually gives the health indicators a double weight. This may apply to the poorest countries, but it is not applicable to developing countries in general, and it is even less sensitive to rich countries. In any case, it is too rough and simple to use only three indicators to reflect a country's welfare level, because the content of social welfare is extensive. Therefore, according to this index, it cannot be concluded that the situation of countries with high PQLI is necessarily better than that of countries with low PQLI. Material quality of life should be included in the index. Even the poorest people not only hope that their babies can live, but also hope that they can live long, have the most basic cultural knowledge and participate in social life. At the same time, they also hope that their families can get rid of the poor material living environment as soon as possible.
Third, PQLI only measures the result of a country's social development, but does not reflect the development process. Therefore, it is only a "macro" indicator and cannot reflect the process and results of specific development plans or policies.
Finally, the simple average is adopted in the calculation method, and all indicators are regarded as having the same effect on development, which lacks certain theoretical basis.
In a word, PQLI is concerned about whether development policies can successfully meet the basic needs of people in poor countries, and does not try to measure all "development" or freedom, fairness, security or other intangible things. At the same time, it does not include many other social and psychological characteristics implied by the word "quality of life", such as safety, fairness, freedom, human rights, employment, satisfaction and so on. Therefore, it is called "physical" quality of life index, not a comprehensive "development" index.