Name: _______________________________ Block: _____

MEASURING DEVELOPMENT
The United Nations developed the Human Development Index (HDI) to measure a countrys level of development. The HDI measurement has three parts: 1. health 2. education 3. standard of living In this activity, you are going to use the HDI to measure the development of some countries. How you can measure health, education and standard of living? To measure health, we can look at population growth rate, birth rate, infant mortality rate, and life expectancy. To measure education, we can look at literacy rates. To measure standard of living, we can look at GDP. GDP is the total value of goods and services produced in a country during a year. GDP basically tells us a countrys total wealth. You can also think of GDP as telling us how much a country is worth. The GDP per capita tells us the average wealth of each person in the country. ACTIVITY Step One Make a prediction. Examine all of the country posters on the wall in the classroom. Pay attention to the boxes of information. Choose TWO countries that you think represent each level of development and write them below. For each country, give 3 reasons why you think it is least developed, developing or developed. Least Developed:

Developing:

Developed:

Step Two Measure the countries. Now you are going to use the computer to find information about your countries so that you can measure them. 1. Go to www.cia.gov and enter a country name in the search box (use a country from step one). 2. Select the first search result CIA The World Factbook (country name). 3. Scroll down and click on People and Society to find you health and education indicators. Fill in each number for each country on the chart (on the back). 4. Then go to Economy to find the GDP per capita. Fill in this amount on your chart. 5. Repeat this process for each country you chose in Step One.

I predict these countries are LEAST DEVELOPED Country Name Population Growth Rate Birth Rate (per 1000) Infant Mortality Rate (per 1000) Life Expectancy Literacy Rate GDP per capita OVERALL LEVEL:

I predict these countries are DEVELOPING

I predict these countries are DEVELOPED

Step Three Categorize each measurement. Now use the chart below to describe each measurement. Does the number tell us that a country is least developed, developing, or developed? For example, Malis population growth rate is 2.61%. This number is between 1 and 3. So next to 2.61, I would write ING. LEAST DEVELOPED Population Growth Rate Birth Rate (per 1000) Infant Mortality Rate Life Expectancy Literacy Rate GDP per capita > 3 (high) > 45 > 100 < 55 < 70% < $200 DEVELOPING 1 3 (lower) 20 - 45 10 100 55 - 70 70 - 90% $200 - 15,000 DEVELOPED < 1 (low) < 20 < 10 > 70 > 90% > $15,000

Step Four Check you predictions. Were your predictions correct? Look at each countrys measurements. Decide if the country OVERALL is least developed, developing or developed. Or you might decide that a country is between two levels. Write your overall measurement at the bottom of each country column. Step Five Describe the measurements. Look at the chart of development levels. In each box, write a simple adjective that can be used to describe the measurements. The first row has been done for you.