EVS SEMINAR

Measures - Introduction

• The world is often divided into two broad

categories of countries:
• the More Developed Countries (MDCs), and
• the Less Developed Countries (LDCs)
• when geographers divide the earth into
regions they do so based on a selected set of
criteria. What criteria is commonly used to
divide the world into the MDCs and the LDCs?
 Measures of Economic Development
Here is my list of the most commonly used measures of economic
development:
• GNP per capita
• Population Growth
• Occupational Structure of the Labor Force
• Urbanization
• Consumption per capita
• Infrastructure
• Social Conditions
– literacy rate
– life expectancy
– health care
– caloric intake
– infant mortality
– other
 GNP per capita
• GNP is the total market value of all final goods and services produced
by a country in one year. It is a measure of economic activity, or how
much is produced in a country. The more that a country produces per
person , the more "developed" it is assumed to be.
• Which country produces more (has a higher GNP), India or
Switzerland? Which is more "developed"?
• The GNP of India is $336 billion and the GNP of Switzerland is $288
billion. India produces more than does Switzerland, but everybody
would agree that Switzerland is more economically advanced. Why?
• The answer is population. the population of India is 988 million and
the population of Switzerland is 7 million. Therefore we must
compare GNP PER CAPITA. To calculate GNP per capita (or income per
person) we divide the GNP by the population. The GNP per capita of
Switzerland is $40,630 and the GNP per capita of India is $ 340.
• Always use GNP PER CAPITA when comparing the economic
conditions of different countries.
 Population Growth
• In general, poorer countries have more rapid rates of population
growth. Compare the following maps to verify that this general trend
is true. You may have to go back a forth between them several times
checking a different region of the world each time.
• look here for a graph showing population growth rates by realm.
Even though population growth rates seem small (1%, 2% 3%, or
maybe 4%) they have a big impact. a useful way to see this is by
using the "Rule of 70". the rule of 70 is a way to ESTIMATE the
number of years it takes for something to DOUBLE if you know
the annual percentage growth rate. Therefore, the population of
the United States with an annual population growth rate of 1%
will double in about 70 years IF THE POPULATION GROWTH RATE
REMAINS AT 1%. The population of the country of Mozambique,
Southern Africa, with an annual population growth rate of 4%
will double in 17.5 years, quadruple in 35 years and increase by a
factor of 8 in 70 years IF THE POPULATION GROWTH RATE
REMAINS AT 4%. So a small change in the population growth rate
results in significant increase in population.
Occupational Structure of the Labor Force
• Economic geographers divide economic activities into primary
activities, secondary activities, and tertiary activities.

• PRIMARY ACTIVITIES are those that directly remove resources from

the earth. Generally they include AGRICULTURE, MINING, fishing, and
lumbering.
• SECONDARY ACTIVITIES involve converting resources into finished
products. These are the MANUFACTURING activities.
• TERTIARY ACTIVITIES comprise the SERVICE sector of the economy.
The tertiary activities include retailing, transportation, education,
banking, etc.
• As countries develop the occupational structure of the labor force
changes. In LDCs most people are engaged in primary activities. In
high income countries like the United states most people are involved
with the tertiary sector
 Urbanization
• Urbanization is the percentage of a country's population who
live in urban areas. Urban areas generally means in towns and
cities of 2,500 or more people. Currently just less than half of
the worlds population live in urban areas. Generally as
countries develop urbanization increases.
• Note the high urbanization found in the more developed
countries and in South America.
 Consumption per capita
• Consumption per person is a good indicator of
development. The richer a country is, the more its
citizens consume. This map shows the energy
consumption patterns for the world.
• One consequence of consumption is pollution .
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is emitted when fossil fuels are
used. Scientists are studying the connection
between CO2 build up in the atmosphere ant global
warming. this chart shows CO2 emissions for various
countries
 Infrastructure
• A country's infrastructure is defined by our
author as "the foundations of a society: urban
centers, transport networks, communications,
energy distribution systems, farms, factories,
mines, and such facilities as schools, hospitals,
postal services, and police and armed forces.
• So if a country is good at these things , we can
say that the country is a well developed
country
 Social Conditions
• There are many other measures of economic
development. Many refer to the social
conditions of a country. Here is a short list.
• literacy rate
• life expectancy
• health care
• infant mortality
• other
 Human Development Index
• GNP per capita is the most used indicator of
development yet there are some significant
problems with it. Therefore, the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) computes a Human
Development Index for each country each year.
The human development index (HDI), composed of
three indicators: life expectancy, education (adult
literacy and combined secondary and tertiary
school enrollment) and real GDP per capita.
 WHAT IS THE RELATION BETWEEN
EOCLOGICAL FOOTPRINT AND GDP?
• Examining the relationship between GDP and
EF, we can see that countries with higher-
incomes typically tend to have a larger size of
the ecological footprint per capita. In both
years, we found countries that significantly
differed from the average, featuring low
ecological footprints combined with high
GDPs.
THANKYOU