Global variations in economic development and QOL

• what is a countries development based off of

  • how far it is growing economically and technologically
  • quality of life
• what is considered when measuring quality of life?

  • social factors such as family and friends, education, health
  • physical factors such as diet, water supply etc
  • phycological factors such as happiness and freedom
• how are countries classified currently?

  • GNI - gross national income
  • The level of GNI can be identified using HIC, NEE, LIC
• why is using the GNI classification good?

  • allows us to make comparisions between countries
• How where countries historically classified?

  • The Brandt Line
  • Divided the world into North and South (Rich and Poor)
  • MEDC - more economically developed country
  • LEDC - less
• why isn't the Brandt Line used today?

  • A countries economy is not finite/it is always changing
  • The line was becoming outdated and highly inaccurate
  • For example China was on the south (poor) side of the line but it is now the second most developed country globally
• What is an indicator of economic development?

  • GNI per head
• what is GNI per head

  • dollar value of countries anuall fincancial income/countries population
• what are the limitations of GNI per head?

  • it is a mean value - not everyone has the same wealth
  • conflict or natural disasters may make it difficult to collect this data
  • not everyone will be truthful in how much they earn
  • Some countries may underestimate their earnings from sectors and therefore not include them
• What are the social development indicators

  • Birth rate /1000
  • Death rate /1000
  • Literacy rates (+15)
  • People per doctor
  • Access to safe water
  • Life expectancy at birth
  • Infant mortality ( /1000 live births)
• What are the limitations of BR/1000

  • may be misleading as people often associate high BR with underdevelopment
  • Cultural practices, gov policies, access to healthcare are factors which may affect BR
• What are the limitations of DR/1000

  • Can be affected by populations age structure and not an indication of poor health care
  • A low death rate may be in a country with poor healthcare but a young demographic
• what are the limitations of infant mortality rate?

  • There is under registration of many deaths and births
• what are the mimitations of life expectancy

  • Women are said to live longer than men due to differences in society
• what are the limitations of people per doctor

  • Some people in rural areas use their moblile phones to access medical advice which is not included in the data
• what are the limitations of literacy rate

  • Illiterate people cannot respond to data collections
  • It is hard to collect this data in war zones or informal settings
• what are the limitations of access to safe water

  • water quality can fluctuate due to events such as flooding
• What are general limitations of economic and social indicators?

  • Accuracy of data - may be out of date, hard to collect as not everyone can/will respond
  • Reliability of data - may be interfered with a corrupt govorment, charaties may lie in order to make more money etc
  • Differenced between countries - informal economies may be excluded, 10% of the country may have 80% of the wealth
• What is the best indicator of development

  • Human Development Index
  • A composite indicator - made up of economic, health and education factors which are all weighed equally
• what are the factors of HDI?

  • Economic - GNI per capita
  • Health - Life expectancy
  • Education - years at school

  These three parts are combined to produce a score between 0-1
• what is a high HDI

  more than 0.8
• what is a medium HDI

  0.5 - 0.69
• what is a low HDI

  less than 0.5
• what are the limitations of HDI

  • dosent consider all communities when there is a large range of development
  • Excludes aspects in society such as crime and deprivation
  • Excludes factors such as equality, rights etc
• what is the DTI?

  • Demographic transition model
  • Considers BR and DR to display how the demographic of a country changes overtime and the patterns that it follows