The changing economic world

What is gross national income (GNI) per head, birth and death rates, infant mortality, life expectancy, people per doctor, literacy rates, access to safe water, Human Development Index (HDI)

GNI - Calculated by adding total value of all the goods and services produced by its population

GNI per head

Birth and death rate - number of live births/death per 1000 of total population in a year

Infant mortality is the number of children that do not survive till their first birthday per 1000 babies born

Life expectancy is average number of years a person can expect to live

people per doctor

Literacy rates % of adults with basic reading and writing skills

Access to safe water is % of people who have access to it

HDI is calculated by GNI per capita, life expectancy and education

What are teh limitations of economic and social measures

Social Measures

Human Development Index (HDI)

• Only includes four development indicators

• Data reliability varies; subjective

• Based on averages; doesn't reflect within-country disparities

Literacy Rate

• Hard to measure in LICs due to monitoring challenges

• Difficult to assess in conflict zones and squatter settlements

Life Expectancy

• Data can be unreliable, especially in LICs

• Misleading in countries with high infant mortality rates

People per Doctor

• Increasing use of mobile/web medical advice not included in data

Birth Rate

• Low birth rates in some poor countries due to political decisions (e.g., Cuba)

• Birth control policies can distort overall development measure (e.g., China)

Infant Mortality Rate

• Underreporting in LICs and remote regions means true rates may be higher

Death Rate

• Less reliable than birth rate for measuring development

• High death rates in HICs due to aging population; high birth rates in LICs due to poverty

Access to Safe Water

• Data in LICs often inaccurate; official figures may underestimate issues

• High costs can force people to use unsafe water despite technical access

• Leaking pipes and natural disasters can disrupt water supply

Economic Measures

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

• Ignores welfare and societal impacts (e.g., pollution, happiness)

• Excludes some production like homegrown food

Gross National Income (GNI)

• Measures only income

• Average calculation can be distorted by a few wealthy individuals

• Sensitive data; people may not report earnings accurately

• Excludes informal sector workers and 'stay at home' parents

GNI per Head

• Average hides wealth disparity and quality of life differences

Describe the 5 stages of the DTM

Stage 1

• High birth rate due to lack of contraception and family planning

• High death rate due to poor healthcare or famine

• High infant morality so people have more children

• Both rates are high and fluctuating

• Total population is low

• No countries in this age only tribes

Stage 2

• The total population starts to rise rapidly

• Birth rates remain high as people continue to have large families as economy is agriculture based so more children to work on the farm

• Death rates rapidly decreases as a result of improved diets, better healthcare, lower infant mortality and increased access to clean water

• LIC’s

Stage 3

• The total population continues to increase but the rate of growth begins to slow

• Birth rate begins to fall rapidly due to increased birth control, family planning, increased cost of raising children and low infant mortality rate 

• Death rate still decreasing but at a slower rate as improvements in medicine, hygiene, diet and water quality continue

• NEE’s

Stage 4

• The total population is high and is increasing slowly 

• Birth rate is low and fluctuating due to accessible birth control and the choice of having fewer children as well as delaying the age women start to have children

• Death rate is low and fluctuating 

• HIC’s

Stage 5

• The total population starts to slowly decline as the death rate exceeds the birth rate 

• Birth rate is low and slowly decreasing

• Death rate is low and fluctuating

• HIC’s

Causes of uneven development: physical, economic and historical.

Physical

• Landlocked countries can’t trade easily due to lack of coastlines. The 45 landlocked countries are LIC’s and NEE’s.

• Having extreme climates means not much will grow leading to malnutrition like in Ethiopia and diseases such as Malaria affect ability to stay health enough to work

• Natural disaster slow down development due to damage to infrastructure and crops which increases debt. Haiti earthquake injured 300,000 people reducing workforce.

Economic

• Poverty slows development because it prevents improvements to living standards, education, saitation and infratrucutre. Without this development in industry and agriculture will be slow and economy can’t improve

• Wealthy regions such as Europe dominate trade because they export secondary goods which earn more income so as they accumulate wealth they become more powerful enabling them to dictate the terms of trade to their advantage at eh expense of LIC’s

Historical

Consequences of uneven development: disparities in wealth and health, international migration.

Wealth

• People in more deloped countries have a higher income than those in less delvoeped countries e.g: GNI per head in the UK is x40 timer higher than in Chad

• Uneven delveopment leads to inequality within countries for example in 2017 the richest 10% of Kenya earned 23

• Wealth impacts peoples standard of living for example they can affod more goods and services to increase quality of life

Health

• Healthcare is better in delveoped countries

• People in HIC’s live longer - UK’s is 81 and Chad’s is 53

• Infant mortality is higher in lesss developed countries - 73/100 in Chad and 3.7/1000 in the UK

• Lack of adequate healthcare in LICs mean people die from easliy curable diseases.

International Migration

• People move from LIC's to HICs to escape conflict and to improve quality of life - 130,000 people move from Mexico to USA for better quality of life

• Migrant workers will contribute to economies of HICs they move to instead of the LIC’s they leave increasing development gap