The Kingdom has made great efforts to improve health facilities and provide free health care to all its citizens. It has achieved child immunization rate of nearly 100%, iodine deficiency has been eliminated and 50% of the population have access to clean water. Life expectancy has increased from 47.4 years in 1984 to 66 years in 1998. Infant mortality once highest in the world, at 142 per thousand births, has halved to 70.7 per thousand births since 1998.
Until the 1950s, the only education available in Bhutan was from monasteries. While monastic education still continues to play an important role, modern education as available around the world has expanded. All government schools are free although in recent years the government has encouraged shared responsibility by imposing nominal fees. Access to basic education, i.e. high school, has become an inalienable right. Literacy has increased from 28% in 1984 to 54% in 1998 and in recent years it has been further enhanced through free adult education programs.