Development (OCR GCSE Geography B)

Development

• Development is the improvement in people's standard of living 

• This improvement may be:

  • Economic - growth of the economy due to changes in economic activities and technology

  • Social - improvement in people's health, education, water and food supply

  • Environmental - more sustainable use of the environment

Distribution of ACs, EDCs & LIDCs

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) classifies countries into three groups:

  • Advanced countries (ACs)

  • Emerging and developing countries (EDCs)

  • Low-income developing countries (LIDCs)

Characteristics of Countries at Various Levels of Development

IMAGE - DISTRIBUTION OF COUNTRIES AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Measures of Development

Gross National Income (GNI) per Capita

• Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is the average wealth per person in a country

  • Dividing it by the population means that more meaningful comparisons can be made between countries

• GNI per capita is an average, which means that the variation in wealth is hidden

  • It is possible that two countries can have the same average GNI per capita but that one has a few very wealthy people and lots of people living in poverty, whereas the other has a more equal distribution of wealth

• Not all the wealth of a country is included. Some wealth is hidden, for example, the income created in informal employment

• The GNI per capita does not give any information about social or environmental development

The Human Development Index (HDI)

• The (HDI) is a combined measure of average achievement in key areas of human development, health, education and standard of living using the following data

  • Life expectancy at birth

  • Mean years of schooling for adults aged 25 years

  • Expected years of schooling for children at school entering the age

  • Gross National Income (GNI) per capita 

• Countries can be divided into four groups using HDI

  • Very High Human Development (VHHD) 

  • High Human Development (HHD)

  • Medium Human Development (MHD)

  • Low Human Development (LHD)

• HDI is scored from 0 to 1 

• The higher the HDI the higher the level of development and quality of life

• Norway has the highest HDI at 0.957 

• Niger has the lowest HDI at 0.394

Map showing the Human Development Index

The Happy Planet Index

•  Happy Planet Index (HPI) – a measure of sustainable well-being

•  It doesn’t include economic development indicators/wealth

•  Scored between 0-100. The higher the number, the better the level of sustainable human development

                          HPI =   

• Experienced well-being – how satisfied people are with their lives (Gallup World Poll)

• Life expectancy - how long people on average live for (UN)

• Ecological footprint per capita – the amount of land needed to sustain the country’s resource consumption (World Wildlife Fund)

A sample of national HPI values (2019)

• Costa Rica has frequently placed in 1st position, outdoing countries considered to be more developed

• USA placed 122nd in the overall list, below many poverty-stricken countries eg. Haiti

•  Criticisms of the HPI:

  • Well-being is highly subjective

  • Ecological footprints of the least developed countries could be lower as its citizens can’t afford to buy lots of material objects