Global Patterns of Economic Development (DP IB Geography)

Global Patterns of Economic Development

• Development is a process of positive change where a country becomes wealthier and more technologically advanced

• It refers to positive changes in people’s quality of life, such as happiness, educational opportunities, increased incomes, human rights, access to clean water and healthier living conditions

• There are different strands of development:

  • Environmental - where natural environments are improved or restored

  • Political - where governments become stable and effective

  • Social - standards of living, access to health care, education, clean water, housing and leisure are improved

  • Economic - income, employment and industry is increased

Measuring Development 

• Traditionally, measurements would focus on wealth, using indicators such as:

  • GDP - Gross domestic product is the total value of the economy per year

  • GNI - Gross national income is the total value of goods and services produced in a country per year

  • The poverty line - the percentage of people who earn less than $2.15 per day as set by the World Bank in 2022 (up from $1.90 per day in 2015)

• This divided countries into rich or poor, but did not take into account the scale or change of wealth a country can move through

• The World Bank categorises economies into income groupings per capita, in U.S. dollars: 

  • Low income countries (LICs) where average earnings are $1,135 or less

  • Middle income countries (MICs) - these are split into lower middle income of between $1,136 and $4,465 and upper middle income of between $4,466 and $13,845

  • High income countries (HICs) where average earnings are $13,846 or more 

• Globally there is an uneven distribution of high, middle and low income countries

• With 8 billion people in the world:

  • “Around 10% of the world’s population live in countries where the average income per person is less than $2 a day. Around 20% are in high-income countries. The majority, around 70%, live in middle-income countries - Gapminder 2023”

World Bank classification of countries by income groups 2021 

• Most HICs are found in the northern hemisphere and include countries such as Canada, Japan, Spain, UK and Japan

• However, there are anomalies such as Chile, Australia, Uruguay and New Zealand, which are classified as a high income countries, but are located in the southern hemisphere and Haiti is the only country in North America that is classified as low income

• Most LICs are found between the tropics and concentrated within Africa, along with some parts of Asia

• MICs vary by:

  • Region

  • Size - physical and population numbers

  • Income levels

  • E.g.  Belize and the Marshall Islands have small populations, whereas the five BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa account for 27% of the world's land surface with 42% of the global population. China and India together account for approximately one-third of the world's population and are increasingly influential players in the global economy and Russia is the largest country by land mass at 11%

Classification of Economic Development

• At an international level, the development of a country has been categorised into one of three groups:

  • Low income, developing country or less economically developed: 

    • A country with low human development (LHD) is a poor country. Most people have a poor quality of life with inadequate services and few opportunities

  • Medium income, newly industrialising or emerging economy; 

    • A country with high and medium human development (HMHD), a recently emerging country. Countries experiencing rapid economic growth and development based on industrial development. Incomes are rising and most people enjoy a reasonable standard of living

  • High income or more economically developed: 

    • A country with very high human development (VHHD). Countries that have modern industries and people enjoy a good standard of living with relatively high levels of income 

• However, the categories do not account for varying levels of development at a local and national scale

• There are differences between areas of the same city, the same country and between countries

  • Germany is more developed than Mexico, but Egypt is less developed than Mexico

• The differences between levels of development is known as the development gap

• Development is hard to measure accurately as it covers so many features 

• It is measured using indicators 

Table of Indicators

Measures of development

• The traditional method of measuring wealth is through the country's GNP (gross national product), GDP (gross domestic product) and GNI (gross national income)

Methods of Measuring Development

• Individual indicators are misleading when used alone, as some features develop before others, which can suggest that a country is more developed than it is

• By using multiple indicators (development continuum) as a measure of development, a clearer picture of that country's development is produced