Download Is the North South Divide model outdated?

Is the North South Divide model outdated?
Development is currently measured by a range of different factors. These are mostly used to compare whole
countries, but this does not take into account differences within countries. There are three categories of
development indicators: HEALTH (health and health care, sanitation, etc.), SOCIAL (employment, education,
housing) and ECONOMIC (money and the economy).
Indicators of Health include people per doctor, infant mortality, death rate and to some extent birth rate. The
birth rate can also be used as a social indicator as it can show whether the country is well informed on family
planning and has access to contraception. However the main social indicator is HDI as this takes into account
literacy rate, life expectancy and GDP.
Another good indicator of social welfare is unemployment rates; there is also an affordability index, which shows
how affordable houses are and the ability of the country to buy those houses. The Gini coefficient helps us to
record the inequality within a country. It highlights that even though a country may be developed, the wealth is
often not spread evenly within the country. (1) Crime rates are a good indicator of poor infrastructure and often
low employment. They can also show that education is poor as people are unable to gain jobs due to a lack of
qualifications, therefore they may turn to gangs and crime.
There is a large range of economic indicators, of which the most commonly used is GDP, or GNP. These are useful
as they help to rank countries by the value of all the goods and services produced within a country, as well as
overseas. Another good indicator is tourist receipts; these show the expenditures by international inbound visitors,
however one of the flaws of using tourist receipts is that a dollar will buy you more in a poor territory than in a rich
one. This therefore allows people from rich areas to travel to poor areas, however it does hinder the reverse flow.
(2) In 2003, 10% of the world’s territories took 72.7% of all tourist receipts. (3) The most useful economic indicators
are those adjusted to show purchasing power parity, as this allows the relative value of different currencies to be
shown.
The Brandt Report
The Brandt Report was proposed in the 1970s. It separates the developed North and the developing South. It
suggests that there is a divide in the standard of living along the line, and that there should be a transfer and
sharing of resources between the richer North and the poorer South. (4) The South included roughly 130 countries,
whilst the North included countries such as the US, Russia, Australia and the continent of Europe. A United Nations
F IGURE 1- T HE BRANDT R EPORT (10)
report stated that of the world population of over 6 billion, 2/3 are classified as being poor and live mostly in
Africa, Asia and Latin America. The more affluent third of the world live in the most industrialised societies in
Australasia, North America and Europe. (5) The Northern countries are relatively wealthy as they have been
successful in trade whereas the South, including in the 1970s countries such as Brazil, China and India, were at this
point much less developed and suffered from poverty due to the large number of people working in the primary
industry, showing that the export incomes were very low.
The Brandt Report set up many goals. In 2001 the report was updated by James Quilligan and called the Brandt
equation. (4) This divided the World into 1st world, 2nd world and 3rd world countries. However this is already
outdated due to ongoing development in many countries such as China and Brazil, both of which are a part of
the BRICS and said to be the new superpowers. (6) The map shows that in 2001, the United States of America, and
the main part of Europe were considered 1st world countries. Russia and some of Eastern Europe were 2nd world
countries. South Africa, Egypt and Libya were all variable countries. They were all slightly more developed than
the rest of Africa. Egypt had large oil and gas industries. Libya had the 5th largest oil reserves in the world. (7)
However due to the South’s reliance on the North for development aid, import and export trade, financial and
natural resources, economic diversification in many of these countries has been stunted. This is particularly
evident in countries such as Nigeria and Venezuela which export oil and natural gas. (5)
Is it fair to still place the line where it
was in 1980?
The old North South Divide from 1980 was based on the
distribution of wealth around the world at that point.
Development was concentrated in the North, and it
F IGURE 2- THE 2001 UPDATED BRANDT R EPORT BY J AMES
Q UILLIGAN (38)
helped to bring into focus how the giving of aid was a
problem. Often the money received by countries for
disasters is not given over to helping the people but
instead it is taken by the government. In sub-Saharan
Africa, foreign aid is not helping the countries to develop,
as actually a quarter of all the countries in the area are
actually poorer than they were in 1960. Liberia in 2011, has
received aid totalling $765 million which was 73% of its GNI. However this aid fails to give the children in this
country a decent education as all of the students who took exams to go to the national university failed. This
indicates that the money is not being used for the benefit of the country’s population rather that it is being
pocketed by government officials. In Angola aid given to the government is unlikely to help the average citizen
of the country but rather bolsters the president’s daughter.
(8)
The Growth of transnational corporations and the debt in
the developing world led to many structural inequalities.
Since 1980, the BRICS have seen substantial growth; China
has by far the greatest economic growth rate, at 7.7% a
year in 2014 (9). Such countries as China can no longer be
seen as undeveloped and poor. They have high
productivity levels and low wages, and this makes their
development much more rapid than that in the already
F IGURE 3-GPI INDICATOR FLATTENS OUT SHOWING THAT THE
ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL COSTS NOW OUTWEIGH THE
ECONOMIC BENEFITS (40)
developed countries. (10) In 2006, the world’s richest 1%
was said to own 40% of the world’s wealth however since
then this has changed. This therefore shows that the
world’s economy is balancing out as the new powers are
growing and increasing their exports, therefore bringing in
more income, and also they are promoting themselves as
new tourist destinations, in the first stages of the Butler
model. They are broadening their client base and
bringing in new people with the use of the internet to
promote and recruit new people to their countries. (11)
(12)
The most common way of measuring development has previously been GDP, however now this is no longer the
best way, and it often gives misleading statistics about how successful a country is. GDP doesn’t take into
account the other types of development (social and health) but focuses solely on the income of a country. The
Brandt report seems to follow the trend and judges the countries on their economic state. There is now a new
indicator which may be more widely used in the future; this is the genuine progress indicator, and it measures the
spending of an individual and takes into account divorce, crime, pollution as well as volunteer work. It also takes
into account income distribution which means it can be used to show economic distribution within countries as
well as with other countries. Life satisfaction gives a strong correlation with relation to GPI, so we can tell that this is
a good way of measuring development within a country.
GPI combines a host of economic, environmental and social indicators to define countries by quality of life
created rather than based on money spent and goods consumed. Economic indicators include income equality,
personal consumption, cost of underemployment and the net capital investment. It has been proved that
income equality can lead to increased levels of crime, low worker productivity and cause the amount of
investment a country attracts to decrease. The costs of underemployment are often picked up by hard-working
workers and their families, the low levels of employment can also lead to frustration, crime levels rising, increasing
depression and suicide, violence and alcohol or substance abuse. Every hour of underemployment is said to be a
cost, and therefore seen to be a burden.
Some of the Environmental indicators include the cost of water, air and noise pollution, loss of wetlands, farmland,
forests, damage from logging, and the cost of both ozone depletion and non-renewable resources. This side of
the GPI aims to show how factories, cars, and urban sprawl affect the world and what this costs countries. The
cost of water pollution is also included as it is one of our most valuable resources, yet it is not taken into account
when calculating a country’s wealth. Wetlands and forests - 2 of the most productive habitats in the world which
purify the air, maintain biological and genetic diversity - are however not usually counted as economically
beneficial.
The cost of ozone depletion is especially poignant in current times with worries of global warming; this is taken into
account in the GPI, with the economic costs associated with the problem being incorporated into the indicator.
The higher intensities of solar radiation, causing cataracts and skin cancer in humans as well as destroying plants,
has caused the cost currently to stand at $49,669 per ton.
Some of the social indicators included are the cost of crime, loss of leisure time, volunteer work value, commuting
cost, value of a higher education and the cost of motor vehicle accidents. The value of a higher education is
seen to be both economic and socially beneficial; it increases knowledge, charitable giving, population health,
savings rates and the productivity of the workers. The increase in people moving to cities has led to massive
increases in congestion - in America the number of cars per household has risen by over 2/3 since 1960 - as well as
causing urban sprawl and also drastic reductions in air quality. The GPI aims to account for the lost time spent in
queues which could be spent with family, working sleeping or at leisure. Unfortunately this indicator is not widely
used, but in the future it could be very beneficial for measuring and comparing the relative stages of
development in the world.
Making use of all these new indicators shows that since the Brandt Report was published in the 70s, the world’s
development has changed and therefore the North South divide is no longer a useful measure for the world’s
split. However it is a good reference point to show how far we have developed and therefore to predict future
development of the world.
Is development uniform over a whole country?
There is a development gap between the rich and poor countries; this difference in affluence between the rich
and poor countries has increased with time. It used to be said that is was 80:20, ie 20% of the world's population
lived in MEDCs and owned 80% of the world's wealth, but this is now changing. With the rise of the new
superpowers such as China and India as well as Brazil - all part of the BRICS - there has been a change in the
balance. Now the richest 20% account for 75% of the world's income, whilst the poorest 40% accounts for 5% of
global income. Currently almost half of the world’s population - over 3 billion people - live on less than $2.50 a
day. 80% of the world's population live in countries where the income gap is widening. Despite the millennium
Development Goals being put in place, there is very slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. This
has meant that these regions are not able to develop as fast as other parts, which further widens the inequality
gap and highlights why we cannot represent whole countries as MEDCs or LEDCs anymore.
Gini coefficient
70
60
50
40
30
20
0
Germany
Iceland
Afghanistan
Australia
France
Iraq
Italy
Saudi…
Spain
Bangladesh
Canada
UK
Algeria
Libya
India
Indonesia
Japan
Ghana
Russia
Uganda
Iran
USA
China
Mexico
Ecuador
Brazil
Chile
Columbia
Haiti
Africa
South
Lesotho
10
The BRICS are a political and economic conglomeration. In this group Russia is the only major oil exporter, whilst
China and India rely heavily on regular and reliable imports of oil and gas for their ongoing development.
Surprisingly they are actually now overtaking many MEDCs in the amount of aid that they give. When the
Eurozone crashed, India bailed out the EU with $10 billion. This is a surprising change from the norm, and indicates
that the scales are tipping in favour of the new developing countries. (13) It is no longer correct to place the
BRICS and many NICs in the poor sector of the world, as although there are still parts within the countries which
are very impoverished, NICs and BRICs are developing very quickly. This graph shows that the countries with the
highest inequality are those such as Columbia, which is still classified as an LEDC, and also Lesotho, which is a
landlocked country in the middle of South Africa, Lesotho therefore experiences regular power struggles with
South Africa, which has limited its development. (14) Columbia has low development levels as it suffers from large
amounts of damage from volcanoes, as well as wars. Columbia is also limited by drug lords; this limits
development because they control a large portion of the country’s GDP. They also control many of the poor
civilians, and smuggle large quantities of cocaine into and out of other countries. They lure the poor, with promise
of small payments, roughly 50p, whilst they keep the majority of the wealth. (15)
F IGURE 4- M Y OWN SOURCE - D ATA FROM THE WORLD BANK
Although these countries are
developing very quickly, the
development is not uniform across
the country. This therefore means in
many cases it may not be correct to
classify the whole country as
developed, or rich or poor, as there
are huge differences in the
economic wealth of the population.
A good example of this is Brazil,
which has a Gini coefficient of 51.9.
This is quite high, compared to the
UK which has a Gini coefficient of
32.3. This shows that there is high
inequality within the country. The
highest Gini coefficient is Lesotho
(63.2). This is most likely due to the
ongoing conflict between Lesotho
residents and South Africa as they
F IGURE 5-GDP PER CAPITA IN US $ (39)
battle for resources. As seen in the
graph, most of the MEDCs have a low Gini coefficient, especially the countries in Europe. However the USA
actually has quite a high level of inequality within the country, whereas its neighbour Canada has a much lower
Gini coefficient.
Countries such as Germany, France and Italy are all MEDCs and have some of the lowest Gini coefficient scores.
This shows that as countries continue to develop, they become more equal in wealth. However this process does
take a considerable amount of time. There are some surprisingly high Gini coefficient scores such as Japan, which
is a very developed country and has the 4th highest GDP per capita. However as the Gini coefficient rating shows,
this wealth is not evenly distributed amongst the people, therefore, even for a relatively small country it is very
hard to rate the whole country as rich or poor.
As we can see from the map in figure 4, the highest GDPs per capita can still be found in MEDCs such as the USA,
Canada, UK, and Australia, as well as the majority of Europe. It is therefore safe to say that the Brandt line could
still be used to distinguish these countries as part of the rich North. Their development has not dwindled, so
therefore they are still in the top band of wealth. However there are still some countries in Europe which
according to the Brandt line are rich, but this is not actually the case; some have GDPs on a par with countries
such as Niger, Brazil, Columbia and the Philippines.
The global, national and regional changes which have influenced
development
Many different factors have had a global impact. In 2008 the global economic crisis caused many stock markets
to crash and banks had to be bailed out by national governments. The financial crisis also had an impact on the
global housing market, and caused prolonged unemployment, forced eviction and company closures.
Consumer wealth saw a big decrease, and this decrease in economic activity contributed to the Euro crisis. The
crisis deepened through 2009, and continued for another 18 months, within which time Europe suffered a double
dip recession, which only finally finished in August 2013. (16) The Eurozone crisis had a great impact on the
development of the countries; they were unable to gain investment for long periods of this time, and this meant
that their development slowed almost to a halt. (17)
Wars have a massive impact on a
country’s development, for example the
wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Ukraine,
where conflict has changed the countries
and slowed any development. Conflict
easily disrupts food and resource
distribution; for instance in the Ethiopia war
many suspect that the large number of
deaths was due to food not being able to
be distributed.
F IGURE 7-M AJOR CONFLICTS AND W ARS (45)
War also has a major effect on the services in a country; schools are affected, which can then cause knock-on
effects such as falling literacy rates. Population structure can then also be affected as it is likely the majority of
young men or those of economic age, will be involved in the fighting. A good example of conflict affecting
development is Afghanistan, where the conflict has been ongoing since 2001. In this period the level of
development has seen a reduction due to the mass destruction. Literacy rates have also fallen from 36% to 28%
within this time frame, showing that war has had major impacts on the education of the population. (18)
Disease outbreaks
can cause massive
impacts on the
development as
large numbers of
the population are
affected. This
usually impacts
countries with a
high population
density the most as
diseases pass on
very quickly; as is
evident in Africa,
Malaria is still a
massive problem,
and is halting the
development of
many countries.
Any money that
governments do
F IGURE 6- W ORLD SANITATION LEVELS FROM THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (41)
gain is often spent on trying new schemes to bring in mosquito nets and tablets to the most disease prone areas.
However these projects all cost a large amount of money, so the countries cannot afford to spend money on
upgrading the country’s infrastructure. For many countries such as Bangladesh or India, cholera and blood- and
water-borne diseases such as Hep A and Hep B, also have large impacts. The slums in many of these countries are
rife with disease due to open sewage pipes contaminating the drinking water supplies. This limits many of the
people in the slums as these diseases are very severe and in some cases can cause death; only a few can make
it out of the slums. There seems to be no halfway, affordable housing in place in many of the rapidly developing
countries, so people are trapped in the slums for large periods of their life. The above map (Figure 8) shows that
the countries with poor sanitation are mostly those who are less developed, this therefore suggests that the
sanitation of a country is a major factor in allowing development to progress.
This is very topical recently with the outbreak of Ebola in the African countries. The disease spread very quickly
since the outbreak in the first country Guinea. This was actually in December 2014, however it was the most
severe outbreak of Ebola since the virus’ discovery in 1976. With a 90% mortality rate, the 6,574 suspected cases
and 3,043 deaths so far are not surprising. These official numbers greatly underestimate the actual size of the
outbreak. In some of these countries the outbreak and the subsequent help of countries throughout the world has
led to high levels of suspicion, with people believing the laboratories and hospitals are causing the disease. Most
of the areas are filled with people who live in abject poverty; they don’t even have running water therefore
controlling the disease spread is virtually impossible. (19) Although vast amounts of aid have been given by the Bill
and Melinda Gates Foundation (>$50 million), with other charities such as Samaritan’s purse and Médecins Sans
Frontières providing direct patient care, when every complete protective suit for just 1 doctor for a 40 minute
session costs £38.17, the money is used up quickly. (20) This outbreak continues to not only have massive impacts
on the population of the countries but also on their social and economic development. It seems to be pushing
the countries right back, however there has been speculation that development itself was one of the causes of
the outbreak, as animals carrying the disease were brought into closer contact with humans. (21)
Natural Disasters also have massive impacts on the development
of countries and can often set them back by many years. For
example the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused
15,887 deaths as of February 2014, with another 2,615 people
missing. As well as a large number of people killed, 127,290
buildings collapsed and a further 272,788 buildings half collapsed.
Many roads were heavily damaged as well as railways and dams.
The earthquake also caused fires to start, creating more work for
the cleanup teams. Following the disaster 1.5 million people were
left without water and 4.4 million were left without electricity. Not
only did it cause mass structural damage; it also caused 7
meltdowns and 3 nuclear reactors, and caused the evacuation of
hundreds of thousands of residents. (22)
F IGURE 8- M AP OF EBOLA OUTBREAK AND THE COUNTRIES AFFECTED (46)
America often experiences hurricanes and tornadoes, which can cause extreme structural damage. In many
cases this then means large areas have to be rebuilt and money which could be spent on developing the
country further are instead used on rebuilding old infrastructure ruined in disasters.
Where are the major NICs and OPEC countries?
NICs are Newly Industrialising Countries. They all share the same set of characteristics: all have recently
undergone rapid industrialisation leading to rising incomes, high growth rates and international involvement.
Mostly these countries have developed as their
governments have intervened and tried to make
the markets better by encouraging investment.
China has increased its exports, often copying
designs from abroad and reproducing them
for a much cheaper price. Their
manufacturing sectors have seen rapid
growth resulting in rising GDPs. They
often offer cheap labour, which
however is at the cost of wages; for
many workers by many standards the
wages are substandard. They are often
expected to work long hours, and the
factories they work in often don’t meet
adequate safety standards. This use of
cheap labour often means that a large
majority of the population is trapped in poverty as
wages are too low to be able to buy anything other
than food and drink.
F IGURE 9-NIC DISTRIBUTION
As you can see from this map, all of these NICs have good access to the sea and ports. This has allowed them to
grow exponentially as they have developed their export trade. South Korea’s government encourage the import
of capital and technology so that more factories can be established, therefore leading to higher employment
levels. NICs have experienced fast growth as most of the profits generated from exports were reinvested into the
domestic economy, which allowed wages to rise and domestic businesses to grow. These workers then bought
goods and services from local businesses, which led to further growth. This is known as the multiplier effect. NICs
have been more successful in part because of the decline of MEDC manufacturing industries; they have
struggled to compare with cheaper competition, as their production costs and wages have proved to be greater
than in NICs. This change has led to a shift in the world’s economy.
As many of these countries develop, they experience a large number of people moving from rural areas to urban
areas. This has in some ways hindered development as many of these people lack the funds to move into the
proper housing in the big cities, therefore they start off in slums and are often unable to then move out. However
although individually this movement can
be detrimental, the large numbers of
workers means factories can produce
clothes and other goods for export for
very little money and they often supply
brands in MEDCs such as H&M, Primark
and Forever 21. (23)
OPEC includes 12 members on 3
continents. The founding members are
Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and
Kuwait who are all still part of OPEC.
Several other oil-producing nations
F IGURE 10- W ORLD DISTRIBUTION OF OPEC COUNTRIES
joined the organization later: Qatar, Indonesia, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, the United Arab Emirates, Gabon
and Angola. These countries have a great influence on the global market. They produce 41% of the world’s
crude oil. This large amount of wealth can also mean therefore that they have substantial influence on the global
economy. The OPEC countries aim to assert rights in the oil market. They have acquired a major say in the crude
oil pricing in the world market. In 2008, due to the large fluctuations in the oil market and OPEC oil price band this
mechanism allowed crude oil prices to stabilise. This has now meant that the OPECs are now crucial in addressing
the global economic crisis. The OPECs’ rise in wealth due to oil has meant that they have been able to develop
and grow. This means that they have been able to develop quickly, with little inequality compared to many NICs.
These OPEC countries are able to continue developing as the resource they provide is constantly in demand.
Although at the moment they are not the most rapidly developing countries, they will most likely keep developing
at a steady pace.
What happened to the USSR and what impact has this had on
wealth and development in the region?
In Russia before the USSR collapsed, there were very high infant mortality rates, low life expectancy and a very
low economic growth rate. This stunted the development of the countries involved. After the dissolution, however,
the level of education rose, and the people’s understanding of the outside world increased, which finally allowed
the countries to develop as 12 independent states. (24)
The dissolution of the USSR caused an 80% decline in investment in Russia's economy by the end of the 1990s; it
also led to the demodernisation of the nation. (25) The economy of Russia took a large downturn immediately
after the breakup of the USSR, which had worldwide impacts. The breakup of the USSR allowed a larger EU to
form which led to the making of the world’s largest economy. This is largely due to the freedom of movement of
material supplies and raw resources such as gas and oil for much cheaper prices. Just after, the cost of
manufacturing also dropped. This allowed many transnational corporations the chance to build up their
companies and grow. It also meant that many EU countries could cut the costs of exporting goods to the rest of
the world. Now Russia also provides many countries with good access to mineral wealth. (26) (27)
Discussion
The philosopher John Stuart Mill noted more than 200 years ago that once decent living standards were assured,
human efforts should be directed to the pursuit of social and moral progress and the increase of leisure, not the
competitive struggle for material wealth. Or as the economist John Kenneth Galbraith once observed: “To furnish
a barren room is one thing. To continue to crowd in furniture until the foundation buckles is quite another.” (28)
When it was first published, the Brandt Model showed the world’s development at that stage, however now the
world has changed and can no longer be confined to the 2 categories of rich or poor. Development is instead
much like a sliding scale and countries can fall at varying places along it. Also, within countries the levels of
development are highly variable. So now it is much more advisable to use more than one development indicator
to show how developed a country is. Alternatively countries could be ranked according to 3 different indicators,
one economic, one social and one health based. For example GNP, HDI and people per doctor, would be good
indicators to show a range across the different areas. The Gini coefficient could also be included to show how
equal a country is. The combined indicator approach may be the better way to classify countries.
F IGURE 11- G LOBAL ECONOMIC GROUPINGS (29)
The Brandt Line no longer correctly identifies/demarcates the level of development in the world. This ‘North South
divide’ model has now become too simplified for our rapidly-changing world economy. This map shows the
Brandt Line superimposed onto a newer version of economic groupings. It divides the world up into countries
rather than agglomerations; it splits them up into their developing states, such as NIC, RIC and LDCs. The oil rich
countries here are mostly all OPEC countries. This map is a good representation of development as it is now,
however it too will soon be out of date as countries change and move along the development continuum. (29) It
should now be more important for many of the developed and developing countries to focus on sustainable
development, trying not to compromise the needs of the future whilst meeting their own current needs.
Development is too complex to measure with just one indicator, as it needs many factors to be taken into
consideration in order for the development of the whole country to be assessed.
(30) (31) (32) (33) (34) (35) (36) (37)
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Current development indices are:
GDP- Gross Domestic Product
GDP has been described as measuring everything except that which makes life worthwhile. It ignores any social
costs, environmental impacts, or income inequality. Instead it mainly measures market transactions. Many
countries however still focus on promoting GDP growth. Increased economic activity does provide employment,
income and amenities, but it doesn’t help in reducing the inequalities within the country. More wealthy countries
tend to have better healthcare, education and the ability to deal with poor housing. In LEDCs (less economically
developed countries) the focus on GDP can actually hinder development, as the emphasis on GDP means that
sustainable methods of development are ignored, and social and environmental instability increases. GDP is
worked out on an average across a whole country and doesn't take account of variations in wealth in different
areas or amongst different groups. China and Bangladesh provide good examples of this, as there are relatively
few mega rich billionaires, yet they skew the figures against the many tens of millions who live below the poverty
line, on less than $1 a day.
GNP- Gross National Product
GNP measures the value of all goods and services produced within a country as well as produced by that
country overseas. It is similar to GDP.
GDP/DNP A high figure in either measurement suggests that the country is well- developed and has a welldeveloped service industry. However both can hide the inequalities, as wealth distribution is not shown. There has
also been evidence of corruption in the values given, as governments manipulate the data in order to gain more
aid. It also doesn't take into account any informal inequalities or subsistence farming.
Literacy rates:
These indicate how available education is to the population at large, and also to what extent the people are
able to get into the education system. Many children in less developed countries are not able to go to school
because of cost or because they are forced to work to bring in income for their family. However, measurement of
literacy rates doesn't take into account the other skills that people have, for example the ability to work farm
machinery, etc. It also doesn't indicate whether there is simply a lack of schools, or whether the families are so
poor they need their children to work rather than study.
Infant Mortality- This is the number of infants that die prematurely. This helps us determine how good the country's
health service is, the ability of the population to access clean water and the level of food provision. However
many deaths in less developed countries aren't registered formally, so it can be very hard to gain an accurate
measure of infant mortality. Actual infant mortality rates may be well above those reported. There are, however,
some exceptions to the general rule that a low infant mortality means a good health service and so forth. Social
or political factors may have an impact, such as the one child policy in China.
Birth Rate is judged at the number of births per thousand people per year. A high birth rate usually indicates a
lack of development, as it suggest a lack of contraception and the need for large families to support the elders.
Low birth rates generally indicate high levels of development. A low birth rate gives a very clear idea of how
developed a country is, and can therefore be used to predict the future and help with future planning. A high
birth rate can show that the country lacks the resources to be able to teach about family planning. It can also
indicate that due to poor healthcare in the country many families choose to have many children in case some of
their children die. The disadvantages are again due to population policies, and figures for less developed
countries are also not very accurate. A country could be considered ‘developing’ but still have a relatively high
birth rate - this indicator doesn't tell you anything about the country's economy, a good example of this is Brazil,
which is part of the BRICs and a NIC, however its birth rate is still very high.
Death Rate: the number of deaths per thousand people per year is a clear indicator of the level of healthcare,
the quality of water and sanitation, accommodation and food supply. Although it is a very clear indicator it does
not however tell us what was responsible for the high death rate, for example deaths could be the result of
natural disasters (tsunami, earthquakes, mudslides), not healthcare.
Number of people per doctor: if there is a low number of people per doctor the healthcare system is assumed to
be good. This can also then tell us something about the education in the country as it will suggest how many
people are able to be educated to be doctors. If there are many doctors, the overall health of the country will
also be high.
HDI is the Human Development Index. It is a social welfare index which measures a range of factors: literacy rate,
life expectancy, and the 'real' GNP (what an income in a country will actually buy in a country). It attempts to
compare quality of life between people and places, and it can measure the differences within a country.