📖 Literacy rate
The percentage of adults who can read and write. A high rate shows good access to education. A low rate means many people missed out on school.
Measuring Development » Indicators of Development
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Cambridge spec: 8.1.1
- What development means
- The economic indicators: GNP, GDP and GNI
- The social indicators: literacy rate, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, calorie intake and doctors per person
- The Human Development Index (HDI), which combines several measures
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Unlock This CourseWhat is development?
Countries are often described as more or less developed. But what does that mean? Development is the progress of a country in improving people's lives. It includes a country's wealth, but also health, education, safety and how well people can live. Geographers cannot measure "progress" directly, so they use numbers called indicators.
Key terms:
- Development: the progress of a country in terms of its economy and the welfare of its people.
- Indicator of development: a number that measures one aspect of development, such as income or health, so countries can be compared.
- Economic indicator: a measure of money and wealth, such as GDP.
- Social indicator: a measure of people's well-being, such as health or education.
- Composite indicator: one score made by combining several measures.
Economic indicators: GNP, GDP and GNI
These three measure how much money a country earns in a year. They are shown in US$ so that every country can be compared on the same scale.
- Gross domestic product (GDP): remember, this is the total value of all the goods and services produced inside a country in one year.
- Gross national income (GNI): the total income earned by a country's people and businesses in one year, including money earned abroad. It is the modern name for gross national product.
- Gross national product (GNP): the older name for almost the same idea as GNI: the total value of what a country's people and companies produce, wherever in the world they do it.
A big country will always have a large total. So these figures are usually given per capita, which means per person. You divide the total by the number of people. Some figures are also adjusted for PPP (purchasing power parity), which allows for the fact that things cost less in some countries than in others, so the same money buys more.
What a high or low value shows: a high GNI per capita suggests people earn more, so the country can afford better schools, hospitals and homes. A low value suggests most people have little money. But it is an average. It does not show whether the money is shared fairly.
Social indicators
📅 Life expectancy
The average number of years a newborn baby can expect to live. A high value shows good healthcare, food and clean water. A low value shows widespread disease, poverty or poor health services.
👶 Infant mortality rate
The number of babies who die before their first birthday, for every 1,000 live births. A low rate shows good healthcare for mothers and babies. A high rate shows poor healthcare, poor sanitation or hunger.
🍲 Calorie intake
The average number of calories each person eats in a day. Adults need roughly 2,000 to 2,500 a day. A much lower figure suggests hunger. A very high figure suggests plenty of food, but may also mean overeating.
🩺 Doctors per person
The number of doctors for every 1,000 people (or another round number). A high value shows people can reach medical help easily. A low value means each doctor has many patients and many people may go without care.
💡 Why use them?
Money alone does not tell you if people are healthy or educated. Social indicators fill that gap. In general, countries with higher incomes also tend to do better on these measures, but not always.
Composite indicator: the Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is one score that combines three things:
- Health, measured by life expectancy.
- Education.
- Income, measured by GNI per capita.
The score is between 0 and 1. A value close to 1 shows a very high level of development. A value close to 0 shows a very low level. Because it joins social and economic factors, it gives a fuller picture than any single indicator.
Social, economic or composite?
| Type | What it measures | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Economic | Money and wealth | GNP, GDP, GNI |
| Social | Health, education and well-being | Literacy rate, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, calorie intake, doctors per person |
| Composite | Several measures combined into one | HDI |
Worked example
Country B has 20 million people and a GDP of US$40 billion. GDP per capita = 40,000,000,000 ÷ 20,000,000 = US$2,000 per person. To check, 20,000,000 × 2,000 = 40,000,000,000.
Common mistakes
Do not mix up literacy rate (a percentage of adults) with life expectancy (a number of years). Infant mortality is per 1,000 live births, not per 1,000 people. Do not say GDP is "how rich people are": it is the value of goods and services produced in one year. And remember HDI is a score from 0 to 1, not a percentage.
Exam-style question
Fig. 1.1 shows made-up data for two countries.
| Indicator | Country X | Country Y |
|---|---|---|
| GNI per capita (US$) | 1,500 | 38,000 |
| Life expectancy (years) | 58 | 81 |
| Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) | 62 | 4 |
Fig. 1.1
(a) Define the term life expectancy. [1 mark]
(b) State one economic indicator of development from Fig. 1.1. [1 mark]
(c) Describe what the infant mortality rates in Fig. 1.1 show about healthcare in the two countries. [3 marks]
(d) Explain why geographers use the Human Development Index rather than GNI per capita alone. [4 marks]
Model answer
(a) The average number of years a newborn baby is expected to live. (1)
(b) GNI per capita. (1)
(c) Country X has a much higher rate, 62 deaths per 1,000 live births compared with 4 in Country Y (1). This suggests healthcare for mothers and babies is poor in Country X (1) and good in Country Y (1).
(d) GNI per capita only measures income (1), and it is an average that does not show whether people are healthy or educated (1). The HDI combines income with life expectancy and education (1), so it gives a fuller picture of people's lives in one score between 0 and 1 (1).
Exam tip
In part (c), use figures from the table and say what they show about healthcare. Numbers alone do not earn the second and third marks.