Examine the Indicators used to measure development and assess their usefulness

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Examine the indicators used to measure development and assess their usefulness. (25) Development is when a country is improving. When a country develops it basically gets better for the inhabitants, and their quality of life improves (e.g. their wealth, health and safety). The level of development is different in different countries, therefore when measuring differences in development it is often useful to use indicators. Indicators allow us to use a figure for comparing different countries, as well as giving us an idea of what the country is like economically, socially and even environmentally. Geographer Garrett Nagle defines the term development as “the growth and modernisation of an economy, and an increase in per capita income and Gross National Product.” This equates development to solely economic wealth and growth. With economy being a major part of what is considered a “developed” country, GDP (Gross National Product) is the most commonly used indicator of development. This is the total value of goods and services produced in a year, this measures a country’s wealth. A highly developed country will have a high GDP e.g. Germany’s was $3.57 trillion in 2011. GDP is found by dividing the total GDP of the country by its population, which makes GDP fairly easy to measure
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and obtain than other indicators. This one figure also plainly shows whether an economy is contracting or expanding, which enables a country to be separated into either a developed or developing country. Furthermore, since GDP is a quantitative measurement it can be used to compare countries and used to create a hierarchy of countries. However there are limitations to its use and validity. The biggest dethronement of GDP is that it hides inequalities and therefore can be misleading. For example if you looked at the GDP of Iran it might seem quite developed (because the GDP is quite high), but ...

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