11.

1 Differences in development
On this spread you'll find out what development is, how we measure it,
and about the gap between the richest and poorest countries.

Meet Blessing Kithuku. A few weeks

before this photo was taken, she
was so ill with typhoid that her family
thought she would die.
Blessing lives in the Matopeni slum
in Nairobi, Kenya's capital. Life in
Matopeni (which means 'In the mud'
in Swahili — the local language) is
desperate. There are no proper roads
or houses, and no clean piped water
or proper toilets either.
Key
I 11 High income
This chapter is about development, and
I IUpper middle income
people like Blessing.
Lower middle income
What is development? LIII Low income

Development means change. When we're talking about

development in Geography, we're usually talking about change for your How else can you measure development?
planet A Different groups of
the better. For example, changing the situation for Blessing and her Angola, in Africa, has the countries in 2006, based on
GDP and GNI are economic indicators, but social indicators (e.g. covering
family, so that they do have access to clean water and proper toilets, lowest life expectancy in GNI per capita
population change, health and education) can also be used to measure
and they can improve their home. the world — just 38.2 years. development.
Macau, in southeast Asia,
Different factors affect a country's level and speed of development:
has the highest — The table below shows some social indicators for a range of different countries. If
84.4 years.
• Environmental factors, like natural hazards (e.g. earthquakes). all those numbers look a bit confusing, try looking at them one column at a time —
comparing the figures for different countries. You should begin to see that there's a
• Economic factors, like trade and debt.
gap between the world's richest countries (those with the highest GNI figures) and
• Social factors, like access to safe water and proper education. .s• GDP and GNI are always measured the poorest.
in US dollars. This allows direct
• Political factors, like government corruption or internal conflict.
comparisons to be made between
Country GNI per Birth rate Infant
You'll learn more about these on Spreads 11.4-11.6. countries. % adult YOUR QUESTIONS
capita (per 1000 mortality literacy rate
If the total figure for GDP or GNI is ppp population) (per 1000 1 Start a dictionary of key terms for this chapter.
(over 15s who
Can you measure development? divided by the total population, it live births) can read and Begin with the terms: development, indicators,
Yes, in all sorts of ways. A popular one is to use indicators of wealth gives a figure per capita (or per write) GDP per capita ppp, GM per capita ppp,
to measure a country's economic development. The two most USA 46 970 14 6 2 Look at the map above. Describe the
person). 99
common indicators of wealth are: UK 36 130 11 distribution of income, or wealth, that it shows.
To improve the accuracy of 5 99
• GDP (Gross Domestic Product), which is the total value of the comparisons between countries, Japan 3 a Go to www.worldmapper.org and search
35 220 8 3 99
goods and services produced by a country in a year GDP and GNI figures also tend for the infant mortality map.
France 34 400 13 3
to be given in terms of ppp 99 b Describe what the map shows.
• GNI (Gross National Income), which is like GDP — but also includes
(purchasing power parity). The Poland 17 310 10 7 Hint: This map displays the size of countries
money earned from overseas. 99
figures are adjusted, because a Mexico 14 270 in proportion to their infant mortality rate — the
The World Bank and the United Nations use four levels of income, 20 18 91
dollar buys more in some countries more babies that die in a given country, the
or wealth, to group countries together (see the map opposite). This China 6020 14 20
than in others. Generally speaking, 91 bigger that country appears to be.
information is then used to describe countries as richer or poorer. goods and services are cheaper in India 2960 4 Look at the table on the left. Choose one high-
22 51 61
less-developed or poorer countries Kenya income country and one low-income country
1580 37 55 85
than they are in more-developed or (use the map above to help you). Describe the
richer countries, like the UK or USA. Afghanistan n/a 38 153 main differences between them.
28

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