. Development Indicators (OCR GCSE Geography A (Geographical Themes)): Revision Notes

5.1.1. Development Indicators

Development is when a country is improving

• Development is the progress in economic growth, use of technology and improving welfare that a country has made. When a country develops its quality of life improves.
• The level of development is different in countries, 📝eg UK is more developed than Brazil. The difference in development between two countries is called the development gap.

Development Indicators

Indicators	Measures	Description
Health	Life expectancy	The average age a person is expected to live
	Death rate: deaths per 1,000 per year Birth rate: births per 1,000 per year	The number of deaths/births per 1000 people
	Infant mortality rate	The number of infants who die under the age of 5
	People per doctor	The percentage of people with access to a doctor
Education	Percentage in primary education	The number of children who have access to primary education.
	Literacy rate	The percentage of people who can read and write.
Economic	GNI (gross national income)	The total value of all goods and services produced by a country divide by population
	GDP (gross domestic product)	The total value of all goods and services produced by a country

• Individual indicators can be misleading if they are used on their own because as a country develops, some aspects develop before others. 📝 Eg. China, whose wealth indicators are high but social indicators are low

• Using more than one measure of development avoids these problems, which is why it is always best to use the Human Development Index | Indicator | Measure | Description | |---|---|---| | Multiple | Human Development Index | This is the number that's calculated using life expectancy, literacy rate and GNI. Every country has a HDI score of between 0 (least developed) and 1 (most developed). |