Changing Econ.World

• Development is the idea of what 21st Century life should consist of, including essentials like access to clean water and electricity, and access to services and opportunities.
• Development can be measured in different ways using indicators, depending on how you view development.
• Economic indicators include GNI per capita, which is the total amount of money earned by people and businesses within a country, divided by the population to find an average earning per person.
• Poverty Line is the number of people earning less than $1.90 per day, with 0.2% of the population in the UK earning less than $1.90 per day, compared to over 70% of the population in Zimbabwe, South Sudan and Madagascar earning less than $1.90 per day.
• Social indicators include Life Expectancy, which is an estimate of how long a person will live, made when they’re born, based on predicted advances, current services and the risk of diseases.
• The demographic transition model describes how the population will change as a country develops:
• The population of the country is small, because the death rates are high.
• Cities and towns are well structured, with strong infrastructure and transport links, excellent supplies of clean water, electricity and food to households.
• The country is developing, so the health services aren’t invested into and many people work in hazardous jobs.
• Education is important to the development and economy of a country.
• The Brandt Line divides developing and developed countries into their groups.
• There are four stages to the Demographic Transition Model: Small Population, Hospitals, Baby Rate, Large Population.
• The improving hospitals reduce infant mortality.
• Some countries don’t follow the Demographic Transition Model, for example, new countries like the UAE or countries devastated by conflict.
• Birth and death rates will still vary, but on a whole they stay low.
• The death rate will decrease first, as the government invests money into its hospitals and doctors.
• Global Inequality: Neighbouring countries can have very different levels of development, but the world on a whole can be split into half: developed and developing countries.
• Demographic Transition Model: Populations are expected to rise and fall ‘naturally’ due to increasing development.
• Most of these nations have free education systems, with opportunities to progress onto further education (universities) or into employment & apprenticeships.
• A limited number of doctors or unsubsidised healthcare might lead to low-income families having a poorer health.
• The population continues to grow and the country develops, and most families earn more money and live safer lives.
• Countries that rely heavily on mines or have intensive industries will have populations with poor health.
• Populations will grow if the birth rate (number of babies born per 1000 people) increases and the death rate (number of deaths per 1000 people) decreases.
• Families also can afford food and clean water, as they get more high paying jobs.
• The northern hemisphere is more developed than the southern hemisphere.
• A poor education system can impact services and facilities, for example, if children can’t get a good education, they may not be able to progress onto university and get their degree.
• As life becomes safer and families earn more money, more people decide to have children.
• Literacy Rate is a quality of education which correlates to economic output, with a well-educated workforce tending to earn higher wages.
• Infant Mortality Rate is a quality of healthcare and attitudes towards children, as infants are some of the most vulnerable people of society, more likely to catch disease and infection or suffer from malnutrition.
• Environmental Indicators include Pollution Levels, which show how wasteful a country is and whether a country has developed its technology to become more efficient and less polluting.
• Area of Woodland/ Green Space is the proportion of woodland lost or gained, which can reflect the government’s attitude to the environment.
• Developments through technology have changed the way we measure development, and we have learnt that development can be interpreted differently for different societies; some countries value particular factors more than other countries do.
• The Human Development Index measures a mixture of factors, ranking each country between 0 to 1 where 1 is the most developed country.
• As the inequality between the richest and poorest communities increase, the lifestyle of residents will change, with worse impacts for the poorest families.
• Countries might want to improve their development to grow their economy and improve the population’s lifestyle, and these improvements can be planned by the government (investment development) or by small non-government organisations (NGOs) (aid development).
• Investment Development Projects are large-scale, expensive constructions that try to improve a fundamental need: generating more electricity, collecting more clean water, etc, and these decisions are agreed by the government and large international businesses (TNCs), and can take many years to complete.
• The most developed countries tend to have capitalist governments, whereas countries with communist governments tend to be less developed.
• Allies can provide aid in the form of money, water, food or emergency supplies, and countries with better international relations are often more developed than others.
• International migration can worsen inequality and cause problems for a city, as poor migrants move to their new city with no money, and so cannot afford anywhere to live, and the area they moved away from loses workers, which might mean businesses cannot find enough workers and must move or shut down.
• The inequality between the wealthiest and poorest households is greater for capitalist governments.