Examine indicators used to measure development and assess their usefulness (25marks)
Studying development is about measuring how developed one country is compared to other countries or to the same country in the past. Development measures how economically, socially, culturally or technologically advanced a country is. The two most important ways of measuring development are economic development and human development. Economic development is a measure of a country's wealth and how it is generated. Human development measures the access the population has to wealth, jobs, education, nutrition, health, leisure and safety - as well as political and cultural freedom. Material elements, such as wealth and nutrition, are described as the standard of living. Health and leisure are often referred to a quality of life.
Economic growth uses measurable (quantifiable) data on economic performance in terms of income. An example that it uses is GDP which stands for gross domestic product. GPD is the value of all goods and services produced within a country. It is usually measured in US$ and calculated per capita. This makes comparisons between different countries easier. It is the most widely used indicator. It implies a lot about the country. If the figure is high it suggests they have a large number of productive industries producing goods. It also suggests that the service industry is well developed. (Services include things such as hospital and schools. If the figure is low it suggests that the country has few industries and few services so therefore a poor standard of living). Advantages of using GDP as an indicator to development are that; it’s a good indicator of the state of the economy and provision of services, it is relatively easy to calculate from official government figures and it is a useful figure for comparing countries. However the disadvantages of using GDP are that it can hide inequalities as it doesn’t show the distribution of wealth and some of the...