Measuring global inequalities: economic and social development indicators (GDP per capita, GNI, HDI, life expectancy, literacy, infant mortality), the strengths and limitations of single and composite indicators, and the global pattern of development.

What this dot point is asking

This is the opening idea of Eduqas GCSE Geography A (C111) Theme 6, Development and Resource Issues, a core theme in Component 2, Environmental and Development Issues. Eduqas expects you to know the economic and social indicators of development (GDP per capita, GNI, HDI, life expectancy, literacy, infant mortality), the strengths and limitations of single and composite indicators, and the global pattern of development.

What development means

Economic indicators

Economic indicators measure a country's wealth.

• GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita is the total value of goods and services produced in a country in a year, divided by the population. It is usually given in US dollars to allow comparison.
• GNI (Gross National Income) per capita is similar but also counts income from abroad.
• These show how rich a country is on average, but reveal nothing about how the wealth is shared or about quality of life.

Social indicators

Social indicators measure quality of life.

• Life expectancy: the average age people live to (higher in developed countries with good healthcare and food).
• Infant mortality rate: the number of babies who die before their first birthday per 1000 live births (lower in developed countries).
• Literacy rate: the percentage of adults who can read and write (higher with better education).
• Access to clean water, doctors per 1000 people and years of schooling are also used.

Single versus composite indicators

Eduqas wants you to weigh the strengths and limitations of indicators.

• A single indicator (like GDP per capita) is simple and easy to compare, but misleading: an average hides huge inequality within a country, it is purely economic so ignores quality of life, and it misses the large informal economy of poorer countries.
• A composite indicator combines several measures for a fuller picture. The Human Development Index (HDI) combines income (GNI per capita), health (life expectancy) and education (years of schooling) into a single score between $0$ and $1$ (closer to $1$ is more developed). Because it includes social as well as economic data, it captures quality of life, not just wealth.

Calculating with indicators

You may be asked to calculate or interpret. For example, the infant mortality rate is found as a rate per 1000:

So if a country had $40{,}000$ live births and $1200$ infant deaths in a year, the rate is $\frac{1200}{40000} \times 1000 = 30$ per 1000. A higher rate signals poorer healthcare and lower development.

The global pattern of development

The world has a broad development divide.

• A richer, more developed "north" (North America, Europe, Japan, Australia) and a poorer, less developed "south" (much of Africa, parts of Asia and Latin America), often called the North-South divide or the Brandt Line.
• In between are the NICs, countries developing rapidly through industry (such as the BRICS group), so the simple two-way split is increasingly out of date.

Try this

Q1. Define the Human Development Index. [2 marks]

• Cue. A composite indicator combining income (GNI per capita), health (life expectancy) and education (years of schooling) into a single score between 0 and 1.

Q2. Explain why social indicators are useful alongside economic ones. [4 marks]

• Cue. Social indicators (life expectancy, literacy, infant mortality) measure quality of life, capturing health and education that purely economic measures of wealth miss.