How is a country’s level of development classified?

Learning goal To understand and

evaluate different
ways to classify a
country’s
development
Prior knowledge/ Economic geography (Year 9)
skills

Application Define development

Evaluate the different
classifications of countries

PROUD Be open minded to learning

about other countries.

Starter:
1. What do we mean by the term development? Write down your own definition.
 So... What is development?
Development refers to the way that social
and economic conditions improve in a country
over time.

All countries are developing. 70 years ago, few

people in the UK could afford cars, and yet
today many families own at least one car.

As a result of technological improvements and

increased wealth, UK average incomes are high
and almost everyone has access to basic
services such as clean water and electricity.

This is not the case all over the world. Whilst

some countries are wealthier than the UK, the
majority are poorer, and many people live in
extreme poverty with little access to basic
services.
These differences in level of people’s total well-being and
happiness, physical standards of living and national wealth
(Physical Quality of Life Index, GDP per head) between
countries is called the development gap.
 How do we classify countries in terms
of their development?

Have a look at the maps and with the person

next to you, try to figure out the different
ways countries have been classified over time.
How do we classify a countries level
of development?
Task: As we go
through each slide,
add notes on each
classification of
development to
your A3 sheet.

Challenge: Evaluate
each way of
classifying
UN– First, Second, Third World Brandt – North/South

World Bank – LIC, MIC, HIC Five Fold Proposal

 First, Second and Third World
Countries (UN - 1945)
1. The First World included mainly
capitalist free-market countries found in
Western Europe and their old colonies
such as the USA and Australia.

2. The second world comprised centrally

planned, socialist or communist
countries. These countries had different
structure to those of the first world and
had much more government control of
business and public services. The second
and first worlds were at odds for decades
during the cold war.

3. The third world comprised the least

developed countries and developing
countries.
What are some problems of
classifying countries in this way?
This division had a bias towards the democratic
first world and hid huge differences between
countries in the third world.
 North/South Divide (Brandt – 1971)

The North-South Divide is a division

that exists between the wealthy
developed countries, known
collectively as "the North", and the
poorer developing countries (least
developed countries), or "the South.“

The divide was part of a report by

Brandt on the state of world
development in 1971 and classified
countries broadly as economically
wealthy manufacturing countries
(the North) or agricultural (the
South). Also MEDC/LEDC.
What are some problems of
classifying countries in this
way?
• It is too simple – large variations in wealth are hidden in
both the rich North and poor south
•It is geographically incorrect e.g. Australia is in the South
•Development changes over time –the BRIC economies of
Brazil, India and China (but not Russia as it was already
north of the line) have grown massively since the map was
made.
• Can’t tell which countries are developing quickly
 Income based classification (World
Bank)
• The World Bank classifies countries
into four income groups. These are
set each year on July 1. Economies
were divided according to 2016 GNI
per capita using the following
ranges of income
• Low income countries had GNI per
capita of US$1,045 or less.
• Lower middle income countries had
GNI per capita between US$1,026
and US$4,035.
• Upper middle income countries had
GNI per capita between US$4,036
and US$12,475.
• High income countries had GNI per Still hides huge differences within countries
capita above US$12,736. Better as it considers countries that are growing
What are some problems of e.g. BRICs
classifying countries in this way? Based purely on income
 Income based classification
• HIC – High Income Countries - These
are richer countries that have lots of
industry and service jobs such as the UK
and Japan.
• LIC - Low Income Countries - These
are poorer countries that have mainly
primary jobs such as farming and
mining. Countries include Bangladesh and
Mali.
• NEE – Newly Emerging Economy -
These countries are those that have
developed fastest over the latter part
of the 20th Century, profiting from
globalisation and technology transfer
(Taiwan, Singapore, India). These roughly
correspond with the World Bank’s
‘middle-income’ group.
Still hides huge differences within regions
What are some problems of Better as it considers countries that are growing
e.g. BRICs
classifying countries in this way?
 Fivefold Proposal
1. Rich industrialising countries e.g. UK,
USA, Japan, Australia, etc.
2. Oil Exporting countries e.g. UAE.
3. New Industrializing countries e.g. India,
China.
4. Former centrally planned economies
(previous communist systems) e.g.
Russia.
5. Heavily indebted poor countries e.g.
Chad, Congo.

This is a more recent method designed to try and

classify countries and their level of development. It
makes a better distinction between countries of
lower levels of development and accounts for
different reasons for wealth. It also takes into
account the variable success of the formally
centrally planned economies such as Russia. Difficult to know where some countries fit
Better than pigeon-holing countries
What are some problems of
classifying countries in this way?
 Can you ‘classify’ the following
countries?

You are going to see a number of pictures of

places in different countries. Decide whether
you think it is an LIC, NEE or HIC.

What evidence is there for this

classification?
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
What connect the pictures?
What is the main way people measure the
development of a country?
What is the problem of using a single indicator?
Most classifications
of countries hide
significant
differences within
these ‘categories’, as
well as huge
disparities within
countries.
 Plenary
Using your new knowledge about development, answer
the following questions:

1.In your opinion, what is the best way to classify a

country in terms of their development?
2.Why is it bad to use a single indicator of
development?
3.What is the development gap?

Challenge: Can you think of a better way we could

classify countries? What about a different indicator
other than money/economic? Next lesson: How do
we measure
development?
 TO PRINT FOR THIS LESSON:

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