World Geography / Unit 4: Economic and Political Geography
4.3 Measuring Development
Notes
Development means how well people's economic and living conditions have advanced. Geographers compare countries with indicators.
- GDP (gross domestic product) is the total value of goods and services a country makes in a year. GDP per capita divides GDP by population.
- Worked example: an economy of $600 billion with 20 million people has GDP per capita of $\displaystyle \frac{600{,}000{,}000{,}000}{20{,}000{,}000} = 30{,}000$ dollars per person.
- The Human Development Index (HDI) combines life expectancy, education and income.
- Other indicators: literacy rate, infant mortality (deaths of babies per 1,000 births), life expectancy, access to clean water and electricity.
- Higher-income countries tend to have higher life expectancy and literacy and lower infant mortality. Averages can hide inequality within a country.
Practice
Which three areas does the Human Development Index combine?
HDI combines health, education and standard of living.
A country has a GDP of $90 billion and 30 million people. What is its GDP per capita?
$\displaystyle \frac{90{,}000{,}000{,}000}{30{,}000{,}000} = 3{,}000$ dollars.
Which set of indicators most likely describes a less developed country?
Low literacy and high infant mortality are typical signs of lower development.
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