Development Indicators: Hierarchy of Countries and Comparing Countries
Comparing the hierarchy of countries and their development.
Development Indicators – Hierarchy of Countries and Comparing Countries
Exercise 1 – What is a Development Indicator?
- Wealth
- GDP per person
- Health
- Doctors per 1000 people
- Deaths per 1000 births
- Life Expectancy
- Education
- Number of children per teacher
- Percentage of children in school (aged 4-18)
- Trade and Business
- Percentage of people with Internet access
- Average house price
- Employment
- Percentage of adults (aged 18-65) employed
- Services
- Percentage of population with access to electricity
Exercise 2 – The Hierarchy of Countries
| LEDC Characteristics | MEDC Characteristics |
| Poor healthcare – especially in rural areas | Excellent healthcare available to all |
| Less GDP | Larger GDP |
| Bad/Poor sanitation | Good, efficient sanitation |
| Less Food and Drink Available | Large range of food available to all |
| Poor quality housing | Good housing |
| Corrupt government | Well advanced in technological race |
| Poor access to education | Fair democracy and voting system |
| More prone to conflict | Education for all children aged 4-16 |
Newly Industrial Countries (NICs) are LEDCs where manufacturing has grown very rapidly leading to economic development e.g. South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, China, India, Turkey, and South Africa.
Exercise 3 – Compiling Data on Countries
| Country | GDP($) | HIV(%) | Life Expectancy | Population below poverty line(%) | Energy Consumption per person (kwh) | Mobiles per person |
| Britain | 35300 | 0.20 | 78.70 | 14.0 | 5.737 | 1.14 |
| Kenya | 1600 | 6.70 | 55.31 | 50.0 | 120.930 | 0.17 |
| Portugal | 21800 | 0.40 | 77.87 | 0.0 | 4.350 | 1.14 |
| Afghanistan | 800 | 0.01 | 43.77 | 53.0 | 25.940 | 0.79 |
| China | 5300 | 0.10 | 72.88 | 8.0 | 2162.940 | 0.34 |
| Norway | 55600 | 0.10 | 79.67 | 0.0 | 339.240 | 1.08 |
| Iceland | 39400 | 0.20 | 80.43 | 0.0 | 26999.540 | 1.08 |
| Nigeria | 2200 | 5.40 | 47.44 | 60.0 | 125.000 | 0.20 |
| Columbia | 7200 | 0.70 | 72.27 | 49.2 | 4876.750 | 0.60 |
| Chad | 1600 | 4.80 | 47.20 | 80.0 | 8.930 | 0.04 |
| Japan | 33800 | -0.10 | 82.02 | 0.0 | 7644.700 | 0.80 |
| Australia | 37500 | 0.10 | 80.62 | 0.0 | 10756.480 | 0.96 |
| Chile | 14400 | 0.30 | 76.96 | 18.2 | 2966.000 | 0.76 |
| Hungary | 19500 | 0.10 | 72.92 | 8.6 | 3613.000 | 1.00 |
| Mexico | 12500 | 0.30 | 75.63 | 13.8 | 1686.000 | 0.52 |
Exercise 4 – Comparing Countries and Indicators
| Country | GDP($) | Rank | Mobiles per person | Rank | Difference | Difference2 |
| Britain | 35300 | 4 | 1.14 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| Kenya | 1600 | 13 | 0.17 | 10 | 3 | 9 |
| Portugal | 21800 | 7 | 1.14 | 1 | 6 | 36 |
| Afghanistan | 800 | 15 | 0.79 | 8 | 7 | 49 |
| China | 5300 | 12 | 0.34 | 13 | 1 | 1 |
| Norway | 55600 | 1 | 1.08 | 3 | 2 | 4 |
| Iceland | 39400 | 2 | 1.08 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Nigeria | 2200 | 13 | 0.20 | 14 | 1 | 1 |
| Columbia | 7200 | 11 | 0.60 | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| Chad | 1600 | 13 | 0.04 | 15 | 2 | 4 |
| Japan | 33800 | 6 | 0.80 | 7 | 1 | 1 |
| Australia | 37500 | 3 | 0.96 | 6 | 3 | 9 |
| Chile | 14400 | 9 | 0.76 | 8 | 1 | 1 |
| Hungary | 19500 | 8 | 1.00 | 5 | 3 | 9 |
|
Mexico |
12500 |
10 |
0.52 |
12 |
2 | 4 |
| Total Difference: | 138 |
COEFFICIENT = 1- 6×138
153 – 15
COEFFICENT = 0.75
A coefficient of 0.75 tells us that there is a good relationship between GDP per person and mobile phones per person. As the GDP goes up, so does the number of mobile phones.
To summarise, I first discovered that you can use many “development indicators” to compare countries, particularly MEDCs with NICs and NICs with LEDCs. I narrowed the large amount we came up with to a small amount I could find out and use to compare a total of fifteen countries. Using the Spearman’s Rank, I discovered that, for instance, things to do with wealth have a positive relationship, one goes up while the other also goes up whereas some have a negative relationship, I could predict something such as life expectancy goes up and population below the poverty line goes down roughly, or vice versa.
When we were studying Ghana we found out that, as an LEDC it had quite a low life expectancy due to poor living conditions compared to Britain, a MEDC, has a large-ish life expectancy which has a positive relationship with other development indicators.
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