CENTENARY SECONDARY SCHOOL

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCE

GRADE 9 TERM 2: GEOGRAPHY
TOPIC: DEVELOPMENT
Key words:
Gross domestic product (GDP): the average amount earned by each person in a year based on
the amount of money produced in a country.
Adult literacy rate: the percentage of adult population that is able to read and write.
Surplus: oversupply; too many for the number of jobs.
Life expectancy: the average number of years a person in a particular country can expect to
live.
Biased: not based on fairness, strong feeling towards one result rather than another.

Ways of measuring development:

Development is measured by using different indicators namely, economic, social and
environmental indicators. The most common statistic used is the economic indicator called the
gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. This is the total value of goods and services
produced in a country, divided by the number of people in the country. In most countries the
GDP per capita is increasing, but in some of the poorest countries, it is not. Some of the
reasons GDP per capita and the level of development do not improve in certain countries are:
 Wars
 Rapid population growth
 Paying off large debts
 A lack of resources for development
 Natural and human disasters (including Aids)

In grade 7 you learnt about social indicators like population growth rate, birth rate, death rate,
adult literacy rate and measures to access to education, health and nutrition. Sometimes
when only one of these indicators is used on its own to measure development, it can give a
biased result. For example, an indicator that is sometimes used is the number of medical
doctors per 1000 people in a country. Generally, the more doctors per 1000 people, the more
developed a country is. However, in Cuba which is not a highly developed country, there are
more doctors per 1000 people than in many other countries that are far more developed. The
reason for this is, in Cuba, the state pays for student’s university fees and therefore many
students choose to study medicine.

Activity 2:
1) How is the level of development measured?
2) Explain the meaning of the term GDP per capita.
3) Give three reasons why some poor countries do not improve their level of development.
4) Identify three commonly used social indicators of development that are concerned with
population statistics.
The Human Development Index:
One of the most commonly used statistics for measuring development is the Human
Development Index (HDI), which combines a number of important indicators and gives a more
balanced picture of the level of development. The Human Development Index measures well-
being and level of development of different countries. HDI is a figure of between 0 and 1, and
is calculated as a decimal value. An HDI of 0 indicates the worst possible quality of life, while an
HDI of 1 indicates the best possible quality of life. The HDI combines social and economic
indicators and is a more accurate way of measuring the level of development than when only
one indicator is used. The three indicators used are: life expectancy, level of education and per
capita GDP.

Life expectancy:
Life expectancy (LE) is the measurement of the average lifespan from birth to death of a person
in a particular country. Women usually have a slightly longer life expectancy than men. Life
expectancy is one of the best social indicators of the standard of living and the level of
development in a country. This is because it is influenced by factors such as standard of health
services and level of nutrition in a country. In some developed countries, the life expectancy
has improved by more than 50%, owing to the improvements in medicine and medical
treatment. However, in many of the less developed countries, it has not increased. In some
countries in southern Africa, it has dropped because of diseases such as malaria and Aids.
Table 1 below lists the life expectancy of some of the most and least developed countries.

Table 1 Life expectancy at birth (in years) in some of the most developed and least developed
countries.
COUNTRY OVERALL (LE) MEN WOMEN
Japan 82,6 79,0 86,1
Switzerland 82,1 80,0 84,2
Australia 81,2 78,9 83,6
Zambia 42,4 42,1 42,5
Swaziland 39,6 39,8 39,4
Mozambique 39,2 38,3 39,0

Education:
The average level of education of the population of a country is another good social indicator.
Countries that have a high level of education use the skills of the people to make good use of
their resources. Good education systems produce well qualified people. They can use their
skills to do jobs that increase the level of development of the country. There are some good
examples of countries in Asia such as Japan, South Korea and China, where the HDI and level of
development have risen because of improved education. There are some countries in Africa
where the education levels have remained low.
Per capita GDP:
The per capita GDP is the most popular economic indicator used to assess the level of
development of a country. It measures:
the total amount of goods and services produced in a country in a year
the number of people in the country.
It is given in US dollars (US$). Any amount over $20000 is considered to be a high GDP.
Medium is between $3000 and $20000 and a low per capita GDP is below $3000. Although the
GDP per capita is a widely used economic indicator of development, it is important to note that
a high income does not guarantee a high level of development. In some countries there is a
huge gap between the incomes of the rich and poor. The per capita GDP for the country is
pushed up by the earnings of a small group of wealthy people, but the income and HDI for
most people is low. GDP on its own can be misleading because the cost of living in countries
differs.
World map showing the HDI levels:

Activity 3:
1) How is life expectancy calculated?
2) Look at table 1, in which region are the last three countries in the table?
3) Why is education seen as such an important indicator in the HDI?
4) Explain why HDI is usually a more accurate measure of the level of development than one
social or economic indicator on its own?
5) Study the world map of the different HDI levels above and answer the questions below:
5.1) On which continents are most of the countries with low HDIs?
5.2) What are the HDI levels of South Africa, Australia, India and Brazil?
Differences in development around the world:
We have seen that levels of development, HDIs and indicators vary between countries. Two
countries may have similar HDIs but can differ hugely on one or two indicators.

Comparisons of selected countries and regions.

By comparing the levels of development in different countries and also other regions of the
world, we can understand why some countries or regions are developing faster or more slowly
than others. This helps leaders of countries to make policies and plans to increase the rate of
development in their countries.

For example, a group of countries known as the Asian tigers have been developing in the past
20 years at a much faster rate than other countries. They are China, South Korea and Vietnam.
These countries have focused a lot of energy and resources on improving aspects such as
infrastructure, education levels and trade links. Other countries have tried to combine some of
these aspects from the ‘Asian model’ into their own country’s policies.

In 2011, the United Nations Development Programme published a report on human

development. Countries were grouped according to their level of development and regions
they belong to. For example, all countries with a high HDI are from Western Europe and all
with a low HDI are from sub- Saharan Africa. Some information from this report is shown in
table 2 below.

Level of HDI Country Decimal score Rank in the world

Very high Norway 0,943 1
Germany 0,905 9
Italy 0,874 24
High Uruguay 0,783 48
Costa Rica 0,744 69
Peru 0,725 81
Medium Philippines 0,644 112
Indonesia 0,617 124
India 0,547 134
Low Tanzania 0,466 152
Lesotho 0,450 160
Zimbabwe 0,376 173