Measuring Development (Edexcel IGCSE Geography)

Measuring Development

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per Capita

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is the total value of goods and services produced within a country in a year divided by the population of the country

  • There can be huge differences in GDP depending on the size and population of a country

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

• GDP per capita is an average this means that the variation in wealth is hidden

  • It is possible that two countries can have the same average GDP 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

• There is no way of knowing what the GDP is spent on - for example, GDP increases after an earthquake due to the rebuilding which is needed this does not mean that the country is more developed or that everyone's quality of life has improved

Human Development Index

• The Human Development Index (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

Measures of Inequality

• GDP and HDI are not able to identify inequality within countries

• In some countries there is a significant gap between the wealthy and the poorest in the population

• The Gini coefficient index is used to analyse the distribution of wealth and identify the countries where wealth distribution is most unequal

  • Measured on a scale of 0 - 1.0 or as a percentage

  • A low value means that the distribution of wealth is more equal - a measurement of 0 would mean that wealth is distributed completely equally

  • A high value means the distribution of wealth is unequal - a measurement of 1 would indicate maximum inequality

  • The Gini coefficient index is usually between 0.24 and 0.63 or 24%-63%

• The highest inequality is currently in South Africa, Central Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Suriname

• The lowest inequality is in the Czech Republic and Croatia

Indices of Political Corruption

• Political corruption can have a devastating impact on both development and human welfare

  • It means money is often not invested in infrastructure, development and human welfare but goes to wealthy individuals

  • It leads to a lack of trust between local/national governments and the population

• Transparency International scores 180 countries around the world out of 100 based on the levels of public sector corruption

• The higher the score the less corruption has been found

  • Denmark, New Zealand, Finland and Singapore have the lowest levels of public sector corruption scoring 85/100 or more

  • Somalia, Syria and South Sudan have the highest levels of public sector corruption scoring less than 15/100