Global patterns of development
The process of a country becoming richer or having better healthcare and education. is the process of change which improves the well-being of a society in terms of material wealth and quality of life. There are different types, including:
- economic development which involves increased employment, income and usually industrial growth
- social development which involves having better standards of living, access to education, health, clean water, housing and leisure
- environmental development which involves improving or restoring natural environments
- political development which involves developing stable and effective representative governments
Measuring development
In order to measure development, geographers use a number of indicators. Economic indicators include:
- A measure of the total income of a country, divided by the number of people in that country. - the value of a country's goods and services, divided by the number of people living in that country
- unemployment - the total number of people out of work in a country
Social indicators include:
- access to safe water - the percentage of people who have access to safe, clean water
- life expectancy - the average age that a person may live to
- The number of children who die before the age of one. - the number of babies who don't survive past the age of 1 per 1,000 live births
- Percentage of people who can read and write. - the percentage of adults who can read and write
Human Development Index
The A statistical index used to rank the 'human development' of countries, on a scale between 0 and 1. Covers life expectancy, education and living standards. (HDI) is a composite measure published annually by the The successor to the League of Nations, the United Nations was established in 1945 as an international organisation designed to keep peace, uphold international law and set standards in human rights.. It uses average The average number of years a person is expected to live depending on where they live., level of A form of learning in which skills and knowledge are transferred through teaching, training and research. and income to measure development. Every country is given a score between 0 and 1, the closer to 1, the more developed a country is.
Limitations of measures of development
Using only one indicator of development can be misleading. For example:
- Uganda is a Based on the World Bank's income classifications, a LIC has a gross national income (GNI per capita) of $1,045 or lower., although 77% of people living there can read and write.
- Birth rates can be affected by government policies, eg China's One Child Policy (1979-2015).
- GNI per capita only shows economic development and says nothing about whether people in a country have a good The amount of wealth or personal comfort that a person or group of people have.. It is an average and may hide differences in wealth within a country.
Patterns of development
In 1980 the Brandt Report divided the world into the poor south and the rich north. Since that time global patterns of development have become more complex, with countries such as Brazil, India and China developing rapidly.
The HDI index map illustrates the complexities that the Brandt line fails to display.
Classifying levels of development
The World Bank classifies the level of development of a country by using gross national income (GNI) per capita. It classifies countries into:
- low-income countries (LICs) - GNI per capita of $1,045 or less, e.g. Chad and Ethiopia
- A country (as classified by the World Bank) having a gross national income per capita of US$1,026 to $12,475, eg Botswana. (MIC) - GNI per capita of more than $1,045 but less than $12,695, e.g. Mexico and Iraq
- A country with a gross national income per capita above US $12,735 (according to the World Bank) such as the Netherlands and the UK. (HIC) - GNI per capita of above $12,696, e.g. Germany and the USA
The development continuum is a sliding scale from least to most developed, with lots of intermediates such as the This is a country that is becoming wealthier, usually because it has started to make products or offer services to other countries.. NICs are countries that have recently seen a massive growth in their manufacturing industries. They include Mexico, India and Malaysia.
(Figures from 2022)