🏙 South-east
Large cities such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. More industry, more formal jobs, better roads and services.
Uneven Development » Uneven Development in a Named Country
What you'll learn this session
Study time: 30 minutes
Edexcel spec: 9.2 (b)
- How uneven development affects people's lives inside one named country, Brazil
- Poverty, unemployment, inadequate housing and weak infrastructure
- How to use online numerical data to build a country profile
- How to write a case study answer with place-specific detail
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Unlock This CourseUneven development inside one country
In The Global Pattern of Uneven Development you saw that development can differ a lot within a country, not only between countries. This lesson looks at what that does to people's welfare and quality of life. The exam wants a named country with real detail. Our named country is Brazil, the largest country in South America.
Brazil is a middle-income country with high human development overall. Even so, it is one of the most unequal countries in the world. Some people live in modern cities with good jobs, schools and services. Others live in places with very little of this.
Key terms:
- Poverty: not having enough money to pay for basic needs such as food, clean water, shelter and healthcare.
- Unemployment: when people are able and willing to work but cannot find a job.
- Inadequate housing: housing that is overcrowded, unsafe or lacks basic services such as clean water and sewers.
- Physical infrastructure: the roads, railways, ports, water pipes, sewers, electricity and communication networks a country needs to work.
- Favela: a Brazilian informal settlement on the edge of, or inside, a city, built by residents without planning permission.
- Informal work: jobs with no contract, no tax and no protection, such as street selling.
Where is Brazil richer and poorer?
Brazil's wealth is concentrated in the south-east. The state of São Paulo, home to Brazil's biggest city, has factories, banks and head offices. People there have higher incomes and better access to services. The north-east and parts of the Amazon region in the north are poorer, with lower incomes and fewer jobs outside farming.
🌾 North-east and north
More rural and farming areas. Lower incomes, fewer jobs and weaker services. Many people move to the south-east cities to find work.
There is also a gap inside cities. In São Paulo and Rio, wealthy apartment blocks can stand close to favelas.
The effects on people's lives
💰 Poverty
Millions of Brazilians live on very low incomes, especially in the north-east and in favelas. Poor families often cannot afford enough nutritious food, medicine or school costs. Children may leave school early to earn money, which makes it hard to escape poverty later. The government's Bolsa Família scheme pays money to poor families if their children go to school, to try to reduce this.
💼 Unemployment
Jobs are scarce in poorer regions, so many people move to cities. When they arrive, there are not always enough formal jobs. Many end up in informal work, such as street selling, with low pay, no contract and no sick pay. This keeps incomes low and unstable.
🏠 Inadequate housing
Migrants cannot afford normal housing, so they build favelas on cheap land, often on steep hillsides. Homes may be crowded and made of scrap materials. Many have no proper sewers or rubbish collection, which spreads disease. Heavy rain can cause landslides on steep slopes.
🛣 Weak physical infrastructure
Many favelas and remote rural areas lack paved roads, piped water, sewers and reliable electricity. In the Amazon region, long distances and thick forest make roads costly, so some communities are hard to reach by ambulance or school bus. Poor transport also stops farmers getting crops to market.
These problems link together. Poor housing leads to illness, illness makes work harder, and low income makes better housing impossible to afford. This is how poverty becomes a cycle that lowers quality of life.
Skill: profiling a country with online data
The spec asks you to use numerical online data to profile your chosen country. A profile is a short summary of the key facts about a place. Good sources are free and official, such as the World Bank Data website and the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Reports. A simple Brazil profile would include:
- Population, and how much of it lives in cities.
- GDP per capita and HDI, compared with a richer and a poorer country.
- A measure of inequality, such as the Gini coefficient.
- The share of people living in poverty, and the unemployment rate.
- Access to clean water and sanitation.
Worked example
Suppose a data table shows an unemployment rate of 14% in one region and 6% in another. Describe it with numbers: "Unemployment is 8 percentage points higher in the first region (14 - 6 = 8), more than double the rate in the second." Use the figures, give the difference and name the place. Data changes each year, so always check the date.
Common mistakes
Common mistakes
- Writing about poverty in general. Name Brazil, a region or a city such as São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro.
- Saying Brazil is simply "poor". It is middle-income. The problem is the gap between groups and regions.
- Mixing up poverty and unemployment. Poverty is low income. Unemployment is having no job.
- Listing effects without explaining them. Say why, for example "migrants cannot afford housing, so they build favelas".
Exam-style question
Using a named country you have studied, explain how uneven development affects the quality of life of its people. [6 marks]
Model answer
In Brazil, development is uneven between the wealthy south-east and the poorer north-east (1). In the north-east there are fewer jobs outside farming, so unemployment and poverty are higher (1). Many people migrate to cities like São Paulo, but there are not enough formal jobs, so they take low-paid informal work such as street selling (1). They cannot afford normal housing, so they build favelas on steep hillsides (1). These homes are crowded and often lack sewers and clean water, which spreads disease and lowers quality of life (1). In remote Amazon areas poor roads make it hard to reach hospitals and schools, so people have less access to healthcare and education (1).
Exam tip
In a case study answer, put a named place or detail in every point, such as a region, a city or the word favela. Without it you can only reach the lower marks.