Study Notes
Measuring Development - Key Indicators
- Level:
- AS, A-Level
- Board:
- AQA, Edexcel, OCR, IB
Last updated 22 Mar 2021
There are many indicators to consider when taking a broad look at the process of economic development:
- Risk of extreme poverty - % of the population living on less than $1.25 per day (measured at PPP)
- Percentage of adult male and female labour in agriculture, % of arable land that is cultivated
- Combined primary/secondary school enrolment figures and other indicators of progress in building human capital. The 1990 HDR started with this phrase: “People are the real wealth of a nation.”
- Access to clean water / improved sanitation facilities
- Energy consumption per capita / depth of hunger, incidence of malnutrition
- Fertility rates, natural rate of growth of population
- Prevalence of HIV, average life expectancy at birth, years of healthy life expectancy, child mortality
- Access to mobile cellular phone services, access to bank accounts, insurance
- Dependence of a country on foreign aid / levels of external debt
- Availability of /scope of social support programmes through welfare programmes
- Unemployment rates and vulnerable employment rates, % of female population in paid work
- High-technology exports (% of manufactured exports), patterns of exports
- Degree of primary export dependence
- Changes in the published value of the Human Development Index (HDI)
- Progress in improving outcomes using the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index (MDPI)
- Progress in achieving the stated Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
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