KEY WORDS

• AC - advanced country - e.g. USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, Scandinavia
• EDC - emerging and developing country - e.g. parts of South America, South Asia
• LIDC - low income developing country - e.g. Ethiopia, most of sub-saharan Africa
• GNI - Gross National Income - total value of all goods and services produced in a country
• Gross National Income (GNI) - Advantages

  • when mapped, GNI can show clear patterns and variations between countries
  • can be used to help prioritise aid payments
  • easy to calculate using official government figures
• Gross National Income (GNI) - Disadvantages

  • average figures can be misleading - a few very wealthy people in a country can distort the figures
  • in poorer countries, many people work in farming or in the informal sector, where their income is not taken into account by official GNI records
  • data about income is sensitive and people may not always be honest