Development is a change and implies that change is for the better, and improvement. Was traditionally a one dimensional concept simply focussing on the economic growth of a country, however today it is multidimensional, incorporating: economic, social, environmental, cultural and political progress in a country.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is one method of measuring development. This is a good indicator of development as it includes lots of factors, such as life expectancy and literacy rates, and recognises the multidimensional nature of development. However, there are no environmental factors taken into account, making it difficult to measure over all development.
Another development indicator is Income per capita. This makes measuring development difficult as it gives an average for the whole country, when in reality there will be many varied values throughout the country. Also it only includes money in the country, if money made outside of the country was also included the income per capita for each country would change, some would increase by more than others, and give a better overall view of development. Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is also not taken into account with income per capita; this means that the cost of living in each country is not accounted for so development may appear better in some countries than it actually is. Income per capita can be used to measure the economic and social development, but not any of the other factors of development, such as environmental development.
Development can be further measured by income inequality. This can be a useful measurement as it shows the differences between the rich and poor. The greater the inequality, gap between the rich and poor, the worse developed the country is. However, income inequality doesn’t give the actual amount of money in the country, so economic development is not clearly shown through this indicator.
Finally energy consumption per capita is another indicator that can be used to measure development as the more energy consumed normally means the more developed a country is. As figure 4 shows the U.S.A is the highest out of the four countries for energy consumption and it is also the most developed. This is a good indicator as it actually shows environmental development, which the other indicators do not, however that then means it is just restricted to the environment and doesn’t show overall development.
Over all, it is difficult to measure development as not one indicator on its own can measure the development of all aspects and each has limitations. Development can be made more manageable to measure by incorporating a variety of the development indicators.