Brandt Line

The Brandt line is the line that separates the rich north from the poor south. It is not entirely accurate as it has a few exceptions, Australia and New zealand are MEDCs and are in the southern hemisphere. It means that the countries in the southern hemisphere is mainly LEDCs like Zimbabwe. It also means that most of the countries in the northern hemisphere are MEDCs like the USA and Britain.

This stands for More Economically Developed Country and Less Economically Developed Country. That means a LEDC is less developed Ethiopia for instance has lots of people living in poverty and hunger so is a LEDC whereas the U.K has a high job rate and lots of people live in good housing it also has a strong infrastructure so is an MEDC. Which one it is is decided on a number of factorsthe main factor is its HDI (Human Devolpment Index). HDI is made up of GNP per capita, life expectancy adult literacy, education and average calorie intake per person per day. The GNP per capita is the total value of goods and services provide by a country divided by its population. The USA has a GNP per capita of 43743 whereas India only has 724! The life expectancy is simple its how long a baby is expected to live. Adult literacy is what percentage of adults can read/write a simple sentence. Enrolment in education is what percentage of children attend school. Finally the average calorie intake per person is how many calories one person gets a day.

The USA has a GNP per capita of 43743, a life expectancy of 78.3, and adult literacy rate of 99%, an average calorie intake per person of 3754 and a HDI of 0.902. The HDI is out of 1. Bangladesh has a GNP per capita of just 467, a life expectancy of only 64.1, and adult literacy rate of 53.6%, an average calorie intake per person of only 2193 and a HDI of a tiny 0.469. As you can see there can be a huge difference between an MEDC(USA) and an LEDC(Bangladesh).