7: Measuring Social Development

• Birth Rate: number of live births per 1000 people
• Death Rate: number of deaths per 1000 people
• Life Expectancy: number of years a person is expected to live at the time of their birth
• Literacy Rate: the percentage of people who can read and write
• Average Food consumption: amount a person eats by working out their number of calories
• Infant Mortality Rate: number of children who die before the age of 1
• the dimensions of development:

  • human developments
  • governments
  • human wealth
  • environment
  • economic growth
  • culture
• Gender Inequality Index Map

  Female literacy rates are better in North America, Europe, North Asia and Australia because their equality is better

  
• Gender Inequality Index (GII): a social indicator of development that looks at reproductive health, empowerment and economic status. Life expectancy, literacy rate
• Higher life expectancy=better health= higher morality rate and higher % of GDP spent on healthcare and lower hospital waiting list times
• Health: defined by WHO as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
• Morality: relates t0 death, measured using death rates, infant mortality, case morality and attack rate
• Well-being: the state of being comfortable, healthy and happy
• Socio-Economic Development & health

  Development =

  • better food sanity = better health
  • better health and healthcare
  • better sanitation=less water-borne diseases
  • happy and healthy people
• What kills people?

  • heart disease killed 7.4m people in 2012
  • stroke killed 6.7m
  • lower respiratory infection killed 3.1m each
• The demographic transition model (DTM) shows how birth rate is dynamic and how changes can close the development gap between nations

  
• Affected BR:

  Social

  • birth control readily available
  • people tend to marry later, reducing child bearing years
  • large fams are seen as a sign of masculinity
  • girls marry early and expending child bearing years
  • Economic
  • Couples prefer to spend money on material things
  • High cost of living means it’s expensive to raise children
• Affected DR:

  Social

  • Covid, hiv, Ebola and other diseases impact LICs
  • In HICs, the increasingly high number of old people is leading to a high DR
  • high infant mortalit rate encourages families to ensure survival of children
  • Economic
  • Better healthcare and vaccination programmes available
  • less physically demanding jobs put less stress on people
• HIV numbers were highest in South Africa and it becomes a problem for the developing world:

  • if a young adult gets infected, they can’t work
  • income is lost and family becomes poor
  • Family can’t pay taxes
  • economy has one less potential doctor
  • children of AID sufferers have to drop out of school to care for parents
• HIV in Malawi

  Malawi has one of the highest HIV/AIDS affected populous in the world at 1.1m

  • sub-Saharan Africa is most heavily impacted, rates of infection peak in 1990s
  • government introduction of HIV testing and counselling helped to reduce the numbers
  • e.g preventing mother-child transmission by offering antiretroviral treatment for life.