How Is A Country's Level of Development Measured?

Development refers to the way that social and economic conditions improve in a country over time.

- Environmental - Natural disasters

- Economical - Debts, trade

- Social - Safe water, food, shelter

- Political - Wars and corruption

First world - USA, Europe

Second world - Communist - China, Russia

Third world - Poorer, African nations, least developed

This division had a bias towards the democratic first world and hid huge differences between countries in the third world

It is too simple - large variations in wealth are hidden in both the rich North and poor South

It is geographically incorrect as NZ and Australia is physically in the South but economically in the North.

Still hides huge differences within countries

Better as it considers countries that are growing e.g. BRICs

Based purely on income

Difficult to know where some countries fit

Better than pigeonholing countries

- Rich industrialising countries - UK, USA

- Oil exporting countries - UAE

- New industrialising countries - India, China

- Former centrally planned economies (former communist countries)

- heavily indebted poor countries - Chad, Congo