Page 33 - The World About Us

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2.2.1

How do we measure progress in development?

If development is important to
Clean water Sanitation
human society as a whole, it is also
important that we can measure how the
process of development is affec ng Education
individuals within each society. Life Health Infant
expectancy mortality
Development indicators are
measurements which each focus on one
aspect of development.
Economic indicators look at the How do we measure
ways that people make a living and the
wealth of a country, in total as well as in development?
Internet
propor on to the size of the popula on. Population Access
Economic indicators will also look at the growth
inequality of wealth.
Rural to urban Food
Social indicators look at people and security
migration
society, and so will cover aspects such as
literacy, average years of educa on and
health, as well as the posi on of women
and minority groups. Rule of law Gross
National
Environmental indicators seek to Communications Trade Income
measure such things as the stability and fig.86 Selected development indicators.
biodiversity of ecosystems, air or water
the whole photo album. infant mortality and life expectancy into
quality, traffic conges on and noise or a single scale of 1 to 100. However, with
Some sta s cians and organisa ons
light pollu on. so many ways to measure development,
have tried to bring several indicators
Each development indicator is like a together in a single measure. This is true and so many different opinions about
single snapshot of a society. To of the Human Development Index (see what is most important, it is hard to find
understand how any society is page 35) and the Physical Quality of Life a single agreed-upon measure for
developing geographers need to study Index which brings together literacy, development as a whole.

Can internet access be used to measure development?

At the start of the 21st century just fig.87 Global Internet users by con nent, 91.1%, UK 92.6%, Denmark 96.3%), the
over 400 million people had access to 2013. greatest number of users are in China
the internet. This had expanded rapidly Oceania (720 million, more than USA, Japan and
Africa
from the 25 million who had access in 9.8% 0.9% India combined) and India (460 million).
1994. Most of these users were
Coverage is s ll low in Africa - just
concentrated in the Advanced Countries, 10% of the popula on have access to the
usually ones with longstanding fixed-wire Europe Asia internet. However, mobile phone
telephone networks. 19.1% 48.4% technology has now done away with the
Many people thought that internet need for fixed wires, allowing network
access would be the next big focus for Americas coverage to reach across most of the
development. Could the internet be used 21.8% con nent. Internet banking via mobile
to help poorer and emerging na ons? phones has allowed many Africans access
This can only happen if most people have to bank accounts for the very first me.
access to the internet.
source: www.internetlivestats.com 45% of Kenyans and 28% of
As with everything associated with reached in 2005. The second billion was Ghanaians have internet access.
the internet, change has come rapidly. However this figure plummets to just
reached in 2010, the third billion in 2014.
Around 40% of the world’s popula on has At the end of 2016, there were 3.6 billion 1.5% in Burundi and 1.1% in Eritrea.
access to an internet connec on today. In
internet users across the globe. While internet access may be one
1995, it was less than 1%. The number of interes ng and quickly changing measure
internet users increased ten-fold between While the highest percentage of of development, it is s ll only one
1999 and 2013. internet users is s ll found in the snapshot in the whole album of
Advanced Countries (USA 88.5%, Japan
One billion internet users was development indicators.

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The world is developing unevenly.