Development (OCR GCSE Geography)

• Development is the improvement in people's standard of living 
• This improvement may be:
  • Economic - growth of the economy due to changes in economic activities and technology
  • Social - improvement in people's health, education, water and food supply
  • Environmental - more sustainable use of the environment

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) classifies countries into three groups:
  • Advanced countries (ACs)
  • Emerging and developing countries (EDCs)
  • Low-income developing countries (LIDCs)

Characteristics of Countries at Various Levels of Development

IMAGE - DISTRIBUTION OF COUNTRIES AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Gross National Income (GNI) per Capita

• Gross National Income (GNI) per capita is the average wealth per person in a country
  
  • Dividing it by the population means that more meaningful comparisons can be made between countries
• GNI per capita is an average, which means that the variation in wealth is hidden
  • It is possible that two countries can have the same average GNI per capita but that one has a few very wealthy people and lots of people living in poverty, whereas the other has a more equal distribution of wealth
• Not all the wealth of a country is included. Some wealth is hidden, for example, the income created in informal employment
• The GNI per capita does not give any information about social or environmental development

The Human Development Index (HDI)

• The (HDI) is a combined measure of average achievement in key areas of human development, health, education and standard of living using the following data
  • Life expectancy at birth
  • Mean years of schooling for adults aged 25 years
  • Expected years of schooling for children at school entering the age
  • Gross National Income (GNI) per capita 
• Countries can be divided into four groups using HDI
  • Very High Human Development (VHHD) 
  • High Human Development (HHD)
  • Medium Human Development (MHD)
  • Low Human Development (LHD)
• HDI is scored from 0 to 1 
• The higher the HDI the higher the level of development and quality of life
• Norway has the highest HDI at 0.957 
• Niger has the lowest HDI at 0.394

Map showing the Human Development Index

The Happy Planet Index

•  Happy Planet Index (HPI) – a measure of sustainable well-being
•  It doesn’t include economic development indicators/wealth
•  Scored between 0-100. The higher the number, the better the level of sustainable human development

                          HPI =   

• Experienced well-being – how satisfied people are with their lives (Gallup World Poll)
• Life expectancy - how long people on average live for (UN)
• Ecological footprint per capita – the amount of land needed to sustain the country’s resource consumption (World Wildlife Fund)

A sample of national HPI values (2019)

• Costa Rica has frequently placed in 1st position, outdoing countries considered to be more developed
• USA placed 122nd in the overall list, below many poverty-stricken countries eg. Haiti
•  Criticisms of the HPI:
• Well-being is highly subjective
• Ecological footprints of the least developed countries could be lower as its citizens can’t afford to buy lots of material objects