“What is Quality of Life? An Indonesian Case Study”
ARGWorld Lesson Plan courtesy of the Association of American
Geographers, Contributed by Fred Walk
I
What is Quality of Life? An Indonesian Case Study
Teachers’ Guide
What This Activity is about
The activity asks students to think about the quality of life in general and develop
their own indicators. In the second part, students use an index of local
importance (ILI) to compare Indonesia to other countries. Next, students utilize
an ILI to see quality-of-life differences within Indonesia. Finally, students
recommend future activities to the government of Indonesia to improve the
quality of life in Indonesia. This activity gives students an appreciation for the
differences in quality of life within Indonesia and in comparison to other areas of
the world, including the United States. Students also become familiar with terms
such as Gross National Product Per Capita (GNP/C), Purchasing Power Parity
(PPP), and quality of life.
Curricular Position
This activity could fit into a topical unit on development, economic geography, or
environment-society relations, and also into a regional unit on the Pacific Rim,
Southeast, or Oceania. It can also be used to demonstrate basic mathematical
concepts such as percentages, ratios, and averages. The index of local
importance is a form of applied mathematics with a useful role in interdisciplinary
studies.
Learner Outcomes and Related Geography Standards
After doing this Activity, a student should be able to: [performance standards]





Describe and evaluate ways to measure quality of life. (Standard 9:
Characteristics of human populations on Earth’s surface)
Calculate an index of local importance (ILI), and use it to compare places.
(Standard 4: The physical and human characteristics of places)
Use international, national, and local indicators of development. (Standard 3:
Arrangement of human and physical phenomena at different scales; Standard
18: How to apply geography to plan for the future)
Describe regional differences in quality of life in Indonesia. (Standard 13:
Dividing space at different scales)
Compare differences in living conditions in different places. (Standard 16:
Resources and human use)

Discuss the nature of quality of life and how and why it differs from place-toplace. (Standard 11: Patterns and networks of economic interdependence)
Evaluations to Test Outcomes
Collect students' completed Response Sheets and check them against the Key
provided at the end of this Teacher's Guide. Evaluation procedures can be
directed towards student ability to convert numerical data into percentages or
ratios, how to use data table and calculate an index of local importance or how to
describe and evaluate ways to measure quality of life.
Requirements
Time:
Three to four 45-minute class periods.
Materials:
 A copy of the Student Activity, including Response Sheet, for each student.
The Response Sheet Key is in this Teacher's Guide.
 Overhead transparencies
OHT1. Definition of an index of local importance
OHT2. How does scale relate to you?
OHT3. Calculating an index of local importance 1
OHT4. What is our country’s ILI?
OHT5. Global averages for selected indicators of quality of life (Table 1)
OHT6. World map-selected countries
OHT7. Quality of life indicators for selected countries (Table 2)
OHT8. Calculating an index of local importance 2
OHT9. Calculating an index of local importance 2
OHT7. Indonesia map of provinces (Fig. 3)
OHT8. Quality of life indicators for selected Indonesian provinces (Table 4)
 Module on CD ROM.
 Calculators, if available
Readings
Textbook and readings.
Checklist of Classroom Procedures
Setting Up the Activity
1. Pose these questions to the class: What does quality of life mean, and do all
people enjoy a high quality of life?
2. Have students discuss their daily lives and what makes their lives comfortable
(TV, bathrooms, food, cars, houses, etc.). Then encourage them to think
about the fact that many people do not have access to these same things.
Have students think about what quality of life is for them and how they can
measure it. Also, ask them to think about what types of indicators might be
useful to measure quality of life, and what types may not be as useful.
Alternatives:

Use a picture, newspaper headline, and/or world maps and ask questions
about how different people use different types of resources to meet their
needs.

Yet another avenue for introducing this topic is by starting at the local level
and introducing the idea of development. Development agencies and
practitioners regularly utilize indicators such as GDP, PPP, education, and
infant mortality in their work. Getting students to think about the needs of
development agencies for standardized indicators can provide a useful
avenue for constructing quality of life indexes.

Another way of getting started is by providing raw numbers for quality of life
indicators to students (such as GDP, GNP, PPP, total deaths, etc.) and
asking them to think about the fact that these numbers are not comparable
without a ratio expression. For example: Australia has a higher GNP ($382
billion-1997) than Austria ($225 billion-1997). However, dividing this figure by
total population (Australia, 19 million-1997; Austria, 8 million-1997) reveals
that Austria actually has a higher GNP per capita ($27,000-1997) than
Australia ($20,650-1997) (World Bank 1999). Other types of raw data will
enable students to think about constructing ratios or indexes that enable them
to compare numbers and indicators across categories. Shorter exercises can
just complete the initial exercise on constructing ILI’s, then move on to new
types of economic or geographic materials.
Running the Activity
1. Have students read the Background section in the Student Activity and ask
questions to clarify any confusion. Go over the Student Activity with the whole
class and be clear about your expectations for completing and handing in the
Response Sheet. Either have the class as a whole discuss their answers to the
questions at the end of the Background section or have students work in pairs to
answer them. In any case, have students write their own answers to questions 1
and 2 on their Response Sheets. (See the Response Sheet Key at the end of
this Teacher's Guide).
2. Have students read the Objectives section and clarify their meanings, as
needed.
3. Have students read the section, What is an Index of Local Importance? Use
transparencies of GNP/C and ILI formulas and examples to help students
understand the ideas in this section. Remind students of one basic rule: If a
measure’s index of local importance is greater than 1, that measure is more
important in the local area (e.g., a country) than it is for the larger average (all
countries). An ILI of less than 1 means the measure is less important in the
local area than for the larger average. An index of local importance can be
computed for almost any measure that can be expressed as a percentage or
ratio (e.g., infant deaths per thousand people, school enrollment per thousand
people, or percentage of people with access to clean water).
4. Move on to the next section, How does quality of life vary among countries?
Ask students to think about their own neighborhoods, cities, or states and
how people live very different lives from place to place. The quality of life is
likely to differ even between neighborhoods within a town or city.
Geographers speak of spatial inequalities (or uneven development ) if, for
example, some neighborhoods (or countries) have a higher quality of life than
others. Have students work in pairs to complete Table 2 in the Response
Sheet. Then, have them answer questions 4-7 in the Response Sheet.
5. Now, direct attention to the section, How does quality of life vary within
countries? The case of Indonesia. Have students read the Scenario and
Indonesia in brief. Table 4 has quality-of-life data for 8 provinces within
Indonesia. Have students highlight those provinces on their map of Indonesia
(Fig. 2) in the Response Sheet. Then, have them work in pairs (or larger
cooperative groups) to fill in the empty cells of Table 4 in the Response
Sheet.
6. Have students work in pairs (or larger cooperative groups) to answer
questions 9-13 in the Response Sheet.
Concluding the Activity
1. Debrief the activity by directing attention to the need for a team report, as
described in question 14 on the Response Sheet. This report can be an
individual, pairs, or cooperative group project.
2. Have students share the recommendations in their team reports. Classify the
recommendations and compare them in discussion.
Progress Checks

Be sure students understand averages (or means). You might give them a
problem to work out the average for a group of members that have a wide
range. This will help them understand that you can have wide extremes
within an average. Note that a country’s GNP/C can mask extremes of rich
and poor.

The new skill involved in this activity is to understand how to construct and
interpret an index of local importance (ILIs). An ILI is a comparison of ratios-percentages, income, per capita--rather than raw numbers. This is the main
source of confusion; check to make sure students get this point.

Another skill is to encourage students to analyze various indicators and how
they differ across and within countries at different scales. Make sure students
understand that differences among countries are at a global scale of analysis
while the differences among Indonesia’s provinces are at a national scale of
analysis. Check to see that students understand that differences between
neighborhoods are considered to be analysis at a local scale. You could
exemplify these ideas about scale with maps at different scales.
Redirections

A source of many problems in constructing an ILI is to get students to
understand the importance of a single national or international average as a
source of comparison. Using global or national averages allows an ILI to
demonstrate how specific places differ from each other and from the overall
average. Try to redirect student attention to this concept if they are confused
about the mathematical calculations and their purpose.
 In addition, arguments about what constitutes quality of life and how to
compare various indicators will allow students to place the abstract indicator
data in a real setting that makes sense to their individual lives.

Remember to emphasize that what constitutes the quality of life is, in
the final analysis, subjective: it has no right or wrong answer.
Perceptions of quality of life may differ among individuals and may vary
from place to place with differences in cultures and societies.
Extensions and Enrichment

Question #13 on the Response Sheet suggests many things that students
can investigate in order to better understand uneven development.

This activity can be extended by exploring indicators of development even
further, either within Indonesia, in other countries, or among countries.

Different types of indicators can also be utilized by students including
environmental, social, economic and political indicators (see the sources
listed under Additional Information below). Most of the data sources are
easily accessible, published annually and contain country-level data.
Individual countries also publish information on regional and local indicators.
Generally, the World Wide Web is a good source for local and regional
indicators.
I
What is Quality of Life? An Indonesian Case Study
Student Activity
Background
Why are some countries rich and some poor? Why do people in some places
enjoy good water, food, housing, clothing, medical facilities, and education, while
people in other places suffer without these basics for a decent quality of life? And
within countries, why are some regions rich while others are poor? What causes
these spatial inequalities, both within and between countries, in the quality of life?
In order to improve peoples' daily lives, we need to find answers to these
questions.
To compare quality-of-life differences among countries, you need some
measures. It takes wealth to buy some of the things needed for a high quality of
life, such as good food and housing. The most commonly used measure of a
country's wealth is Gross National Product Per Capita (GNP/C). Usually, the
higher a country's GNP/C, the better its quality of life. GNP/C is the total value
of goods and services produced by a country divided by its population. For
example, the value of the cereals, minerals, and fish produced by a country's
farms, mines, and rivers contribute to its GNP. When its factories produce steel
or cars or t-shirts they add to the GNP. And the value of services such as
banking, telecommunications, transportation, teaching, and dentistry also count
toward a country’s GNP.
Because money has different purchasing power in different countries, GNP
values are converted to a common value as if there was a common international
currency. This is called Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), meaning that all money
has the same purchasing power. You can explore differences in the quality of life
among countries by comparing PPP GNP/C. For example, in 1997, the United
States had a PPP GNP/C of $29,080, while Indonesia had only $3,390. The
global average for PPP GNP/C in 1997 was $5,180 (World Bank 1999). You can
compare individual countries to the global average to measure, in general terms,
whether their quality of life is better or worse than the rest of the world.
But other indicators may be equally or even more important, such as life
expectancy, literacy, infant mortality, availability of medical services, and sanitary
facilities. Do you think that the presence of radios, televisions, VCRs, computers,
CD players, and other consumer goods are good quality-of-life indicators? Why
or why not? Are some quality-of-life features difficult, if not impossible, to
measure? If so, which ones do you suggest? Write your answers to these
questions at 1 and 2 on Response Sheet I.
Objectives
In this activity, you will learn to:
 Describe and evaluate ways to measure quality of life.
 Calculate an index of local importance (ILI), and use it to compare places.
 Use international, national, and local indicators of development.
 Describe regional differences in quality of life in Indonesia.
 Compare differences in living conditions in different places.
 Examine the nature of quality of life and how and why it differs from place-toplace.
What is an Index of Local Importance?
You learned that PPP GNP/C can tell you whether one country is higher or lower
than another country on that measure, but it does not tell you how a country
compares to all countries on that measure. To learn that, you can use an Index
of Local Importance (ILI). The ILI shows whether an area is typical or unusual
compared to all countries on a particular measure. It gives you a good way of
comparing measures of the quality of life within and between different countries.
The ILI shows how features of a local area compare to a national, regional, or
global average. Here's an example of how this works.
To compute the ILI, divide the figure in each country by the global average. To
return to the United States example, PPP GNP/C for 1997 was $29,080. If you
divide this by the global average ($5,180), you get 5.6. This means that the U.S.
had 5.6 times the global average PPP GNP/C. Note that if the U.S. figure was
the same as the global average, the ILI would be 1. ILIs above 1 are higher than
the average and those below 1 are lower than the average. If you divide
Indonesia’s 1997 PPP GNP/C ($3,390) by the global average ($5,180), the ILI is
about .65, which is much lower than the global average.
ILIs are most useful when you want to compare raw figures. For example, in
1994, approximately 77 million Indonesians lived in urban areas, while in the
U.S., 203 million people lived in urban areas (United Nations 1998). Because
these countries do not have the same population sizes, these raw numbers do
not tell you which country is more urbanized. To learn that, you need to change
raw numbers to percentages. Figured as a percentage, 37 percent of the people
in Indonesia live in urban areas, while 75 percent of the U.S. population is
urbanized.
But these percentages do not tell you how the countries compare to all countries.
To learn this, you need to compute the ILI, as follows: Divide the percentage
urbanized in each country by the global average (44 percent of the world's
population live in urban areas). In our example, the U.S. had an ILI of 1.7 (75
percent divided by 44 percent). This means that the U.S. percentage of
urbanization was 1.7 times higher than the global average. The figure for
Indonesia was 37 divided by 44 percent, which gives an ILI of .84, a figure
somewhat less than the world's average.
How does quality of life vary among countries?
To see how quality of life varies among some countries, compute ILIs for the
selected indicators of quality of life that are given in Table 1. Table 2 gives the
global averages for these indicators. Locate the countries selected in Table 2
using the world map
(Figure 1). Complete the missing ILIs for infant mortality, safe drinking water,
and TVs in Table 2 on Response Sheet I-1.
Table 1: Quality of Life Indicators for Selected Countries
NIGERIA
102
SENEGAL
15
POPULATION
(MILLIONS)
118
9
PPP GNP PER CAPITA
($)
864
PPP GNP ILI
0.17
PPP GNP
($BILLIONS)
INFANT MORTALITY
INFANT MORTALITY ILI
% OF POP. WITH
ACCESS TO SAFE
WATER
SAFE WATER ILI
TELEVISIONS
TELEVISIONS ILI
PERU
112
ARGENTINA
360
FRANCE
1301
U.S.
7,783
INDONESIA
679
24
36
59
268
200
1,667
4,667
10,000
22,051
29,041
3,395
0.32
0.90
1.9
4.3
5.6
0.66
77
70
52
24
6
9
60
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
50
50
66
65
100
73
65
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
4
4
10
32
58
78
15
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
Sources: United Nations 1998; World Bank 1999.
Table 2: Global Averages for Selected Indicators of Quality of Life
Indicator
Global Average
PPP GNP per capita (1997)
$5,180
Infant Mortality (1995)
Deaths under age 1 per 1,000 live
births
57
Percentage of Population with Access
to Safe Drinking Water
75
Number of Televisions (per 100
people)
22
Sources: United Nations 1998; World Bank 1999.
Calculating the Index of Local Importance:
Example 1: Nigeria-PPP GNP per capita
1)
PPP GNP
$102,000,000,000

 PPP GNP per capita  $864
Population
118,000,000
2)
Nigeria PPP GNP
$864

 ILI of .17
Global PPP GNP $5,180
Example 2: Nigeria-Infant Mortality
1)
Infant Mortality (Nigeria)
77

 ILI of 1.35
Infant Mortality (Global Average) 57
Answer questions 4-7 on Response Sheet I-2.
4. In Table 1, which country has the largest ILI, and for which indicator? What
does this signify?
5. In Table 1, which country has the lowest ILI, and for which indicator? What
does this signify?
6. Which countries in Table 1 have the highest quality of life? Why? Make a
case for the one country you think has the highest quality of life.
7. Which countries in Table 2 have the lowest quality of life? Why? Make a
case for the one country you think has the lowest quality of life.
How does quality of life vary within countries? How does this apply in the case of
Indonesia?
In this part of the activity you can further explore ILIs to learn about the quality of
life in Indonesia. Consider the following scenario.
Scenario
Imagine that you are a member of a United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) team. The Indonesian government has asked your team to make
recommendations for improving the quality of life in Indonesia. Your team
decides that its first job is to find out how quality of life varies within the country.
You decide to use Indonesian government data to make an index of local
importance that measures the quality of life among the country's provinces.
Figure 2: Map of Indonesia
Indonesia in brief
With over 200 million people, Indonesia is the fifth most populous country in the
world. It is made up of more than 17,000 islands, more than 6,000 of which are
uninhabited. The country stretches for more than 3,000 miles from west to east
and over 1,300 miles from north to south. But the sea covers most of the area
within these limits.
The five major islands are Sumatra, Java, Borneo (which Indonesia shares with
Malaysia), Sulawesi (formerly called Celebes), and Irian Jaya (on the western
part of the island of New Guinea). Within Indonesia are many different culture
groups speaking several hundred languages. The official language of
government is called Bahasa Indonesia, which serves as a lingua franca for
various language groups. About 90 per cent of Indonesians are adherents of
Islam.
The quality of life varies greatly among the different provinces of Indonesia. ILIs
are very useful in showing how these local areas are different from the overall
Indonesian average. Using Tables 3 and 4, calculate the ILIs missing on Table
4 (Percentage below poverty line, Infant mortality, Male and Female Life
Expectancy, Access to electricity) and fill-in the missing ILIs in Table 4 on
Response Sheet I.
Table 3: Selected Quality of Life Indicators for Indonesia
Indicator
Indonesian Average
Percentage of Population
Below the Poverty Line
11*
Infant Mortality
(Deaths under age 1 per 1,000 live
births)
71
Male Life Expectancy (years)
58
Female Life Expectancy (years)
61
Percentage of Population with
access to electricity
72
Source: Statistik Indonesia 1996. *Following the economic
crisis in 1997, this figure was much higher
TABLE 4: QUALITY OF LIFE INDICATORS FOR SELECTED INDONESIAN PROVINCES
JAKARTA
EAST
JAWA
NORTH
SUMATRA
BENGKULU
EAST
NUSA
TENGGARA
MALUKU
SOUTH
KALIMATAN
NORTH
SULAWESI
1996
9.4
34.5
11.5
1.5
3.7
2.2
3.0
2.7
Total Pop.
Below
Poverty Line
2.3
4.0
1.2
0.1
0.7
0.4
0.4
0.3
% of Pop.
Below
Poverty Line
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
40
64
61
69
77
76
91
63
Infant
Mortality ILI
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
Male Life
Expectancy
64
60
60
59
57
57
54
60
Male Life
Expectancy
ILI
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
Female Life
Expectancy
68
63
64
62
60
60
57
63
Female Life
Expectancy
ILI
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
Total Pop.
(Millions)
Poverty Line
ILI
Infant
Mortality
% of Pop.
Access to
Electricity
Electricity ILI
99
78
72
55
26
56
68
74
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
Source: Statistik Indonesia 1996.
Write your answers to Questions 8-12 on Response Sheet I-3 and I-4. Then,
complete Response Sheet I with your written report from your United Nations
Development Program team. Your report should evaluate and make
recommendations for improving the quality of life in Indonesia.
References
Statistik Indonesia. 1996.
United Nations. 1998. Human Development Report: 1998. United Nations: New
York.
World Bank. 1999. World Development Indicators, 1999. World Bank:
Washington, D.C.
Activity I: What is Quality of Life? An Indonesian Case Study
Response Sheet I-1
Name
1. Do you think that the presence of radios, televisions, VCRs, computers, CD
players, and other consumer goods are good quality-of-life indicators? Why or
why not?
2. Are some quality-of-life features difficult, if not impossible, to measure? If so,
which ones do you suggest and why would they be difficult to measure?
3. Complete the missing ILIs (infant mortality, safe drinking water, and TVs) in
Table 2 below:
Table 1: Selected Quality of Life Indicators for Selected Countries
NIGERIA
SENEGAL
PERU
ARGENTINA
FRANCE
U.S.
INDONESIA
PPP GNP
($BILLIONS)
102
15
112
360
1301
7,783
679
POPULATION
(MILLIONS)
118
9
24
36
59
268
200
PPP GNP PER
CAPITA ($)
864
1,667
4,667
10,000
22,051
29,041
3,395
PPP GNP ILI
0.17
0.32
0.9
1.9
4.3
5.6
0.66
INFANT
MORTALITY
77
70
52
24
6
9
60
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
% OF POP. WITH
ACCESS TO
SAFE WATER
50
50
66
65
100
73
65
SAFE WATER ILI
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
196
117
255
673
891
2122
148
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
INFANT
MORTALITY ILI
TELEVISIONS
TELEVISIONS ILI
Sources: United Nations 1998; World Bank 1999.
Activity I: What is Quality of Life? An Indonesian Case Study
Response Sheet I-2
4. In Table 1, which country has the largest ILI, and for which indicator? What
does this signify?
5. In Table 1, which country has the lowest ILI, and for which indicator? What
does this signify?
6. Which countries in Table 1 have the highest quality of life? Why? Make a
case for the one country you think has the highest quality of life.
7. Which countries in Table 1 have the lowest quality of life? Why? Make a
case for the one country you think has the lowest quality of life.
Activity I: What is Quality of Life? An Indonesian Case Study
Response Sheet I-3
TABLE 4: QUALITY OF LIFE INDICATORS FOR SELECTED INDONESIAN PROVINCES
JAKARTA
EAST
JAWA
NORTH
SUMATRA
BENGKULU
EAST NUSA
TENGGARA
MALUKU
SOUTH
KALIMATAN
NORTH
SULAWESI
Total Pop. (Millions)
1996
9.4
34.5
11.5
1.5
3.7
2.2
3.0
2.7
Total Pop.
(Millions) Below
Poverty Line
2.3
4.0
1.2
0.1
0.7
0.4
0.4
0.3
% of Pop. Below
Poverty Line
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
Poverty Line ILI
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
Infant Mortality
40
64
61
69
77
76
91
63
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
64
60
60
59
57
57
54
60
68
63
64
62
60
60
57
63
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
99
78
72
55
26
56
68
74
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
_____
Infant Mortality ILI
Male Life
Expectancy
Male Life
Expectancy ILI
Female Life
Expectancy
Female Life
Expectancy ILI
% of Pop. Access to
Electricity
Electricity ILI
Source: Statistik Indonesia 1996.
8. Based on Table 4, which Indonesian province do you think has the lowest
quality of life? Why?
9. Which province has the highest quality of life? Why?
10. Give examples of what you think are poor quality-of-life indicators used in
Table 4 and what you think are good indicators.
Activity I: What is Quality of Life? An Indonesian Case Study
Response Sheet I-4
11. What indicators are missing that are important measures of quality of life?
12. What do you think might account for the quality-of-life differences among
Indonesia's provinces?
13. In this space, write your report from your United Nations Development
Program team. Your report should make recommendations for improving the
quality of life among Indonesia's provinces.
ARGWorld Resources
Digital Material on CD Unit
Additional Information
WWW Links:
 http://www.bps.go.id/links/index.html (Indonesian Statistics).
 http://www.wri.org/datainfo.html (World Resources Institute Indicators).
 http://www.un.org/Depts/unsd/social/main.htm (United Nations Social
Indicators).
 http://www.worldbank.org/wdr/ (World Development Report-World Bank).
 http://www.who.org/ (World Health Organization Indicators).
 http://www.undp.org/toppages/statistics/index.html (United Nations
Development Statistics).
Publications
Population Reference Bureau, Inc. (Published Annually). World Population Data
Sheet. Washington, D.C.: Population Reference Bureau, Inc.
United Nations. (Published Annually). The Human Development Report. New
York: United Nations, New York.
World Bank. (Published Annually). The World Development Report.
Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.
World Bank. (Published Annually). World Development Indicators. Washington,
D.C.: The World Bank.
World Resources Institute. (Published Annually). World Resources.
Washington, D.C.: World Resources Institute.
I
What is Quality of Life? An Indonesian Case Study
Response Sheet Key
1. Do you think that the presence of radios, televisions, VCRs, computers, CD
players, and other consumer goods are good quality-of-life indicators? Why or
why not?
Various answers. Students should think about what indicators are relevant to
their quality of life and how they would define what that quality is. Also, they
might argue that indicators such as safety and happiness are more important
than consumer goods.
2. Are some quality-of-life features difficult, if not impossible, to measure? If so,
which ones do you suggest and why would they be difficult to measure?
Various answers. Students should ponder how they measure quality of life and
what types of “quality” features are intangible or immeasurable. Possible
answers are health, happiness, family, safety, environmental beauty, etc. Many
of these things are difficult to measure because they are intrinsically emotional or
subjective items. Students can discuss the difficulty of defining quality of life in
terms of these issues.
3. Complete the missing ILIs (infant mortality, safe drinking water, and TVs) in
Table 2 on the next page:
Table 2: Quality of Life Indicators for Selected Countries
PPP GNP
($BILLIONS)
POPULATION
(MILLIONS)
PPP GNP
PER CAPITA
($)
PPP GNP ILI
INFANT
MORTALITY
INFANT
MORTALITY
ILI
% OF POP.
WITH
ACCESS TO
SAFE WATER
SAFE WATER
ILI
TELEVISIONS
TELEVISIONS
ILI
NIGERIA
SENEGAL
PERU
ARGENTINA
FRANCE
U.S.
INDONESIA
102
15
112
360
1301
7,783
679
118
9
24
36
59
268
200
864
1,667
4,667
10,000
22,051
29,041
3,395
0.2
77
0.3
70
0.9
52
1.9
24
4.3
6
5.6
9
0.7
60
50
50
66
65
100
73
65
0.7
0.7
0.9
0.9
1.3
1.0
0.9
4
0.18
4
0.18
10
0.45
32
1.45
58
2.63
78
3.54
15
0.68
Sources: United Nations 1998; World Bank 1999.
4. In Table 2, which country has the largest ILI, and for which indicator? What
does this signify?
United States-PPP GNP (5.6). The United States is far above the global average
of per capita income (The average is 1). In fact, the United States has 5.6 times
the global average for PPP GNP. Clearly the United States has the largest PPP
GNP, but does this signify a higher quality of life, or just more money?
5. In Table 2, which country has the lowest ILI, and for which indicator? What
does this signify?
Nigeria-PPP GNP ILI (.17). Nigeria has the lowest PPP GNP based on the
global average (The average is 1). Nigeria has the lowest PPP GNP among the
selected countries and could possibly signify a lower quality of life, but this
should lead to debate again about what the quality of life means.
6. Which countries in Table 2 have the highest quality of life? Why? Make a
case for the one country you think has the highest quality of life.
The United States has the highest ILI for televisions (3.54), PPP GNP (5.6).
However France has a higher ILI for safe water (1.33) and a lower infant mortality
ILI (.10). Which is more important? Cases can be made for either based on
which indicators students think are most important.
7. Which countries in Table 2 have the lowest quality of life? Why? Make a
case for the one country you think has the lowest quality of life.
Nigeria has the lowest ILI for PPP GNP ILI (.17), the highest Infant Mortality ILI
(1.35), and ties Senegal on Safewater (0.67) and Televisions (0.18). Depending
on which indicators students think are more important, a case can be made for
either.
8. On Figure 3, highlight the provinces selected for Table 4. Then, complete
Table 4 by filling in the empty cells.
TABLE 4: QUALITY OF LIFE INDICATORS FOR SELECTED
INDONESIAN PROVINCES
Total Pop.
(Millions)
1996
Total Pop.
Below
Poverty Line
% of Pop.
Below
Poverty Line
Poverty Line
ILI
Infant
Mortality
Infant
Mortality ILI
Male Life
Expectancy
Male Life
Expectancy
ILI
Female Life
Expectancy
Female Life
Expectancy
ILI
% of Pop.
Access to
Electricity
Electricity ILI
JAKARTA
EAST
JAWA
NORTH
SUMATRA
BENGKULU
EAST NUSA
TENGGARA
MALUKU
SOUTH
KALIMATAN
NORTH
SULAWESI
9.4
34.5
11.5
1.5
3.7
2.2
3.0
2.7
2.3
4.0
1.2
0.1
0.7
0.4
0.4
0.3
24.5
11.6
10.4
6.7
18.9
31.8
13.3
11.1
2.2
1.1
1.0
0.6
1.8
1.7
1.2
1.0
40
64
61
69
77
76
91
63
0.6
0.9
0.9
1.0
1.1
1.1
1.3
0.9
64
60
60
59
57
57
54
60
1.1
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
0.9
1.0
68
63
64
62
60
60
57
63
1.1
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
0.9
1.0
99
78
72
55
26
56
68
74
Source: Statistik Indonesia 1996.
9. Based on Table 4, which Indonesian province do you think has the lowest
quality of life. Why?
This question requires students to compare each province with the national
average and determine which provinces are above and below the national
average according to the ILI score. Care should be taken that different ILI scores
mean different things. For example, being above the poverty line suggests that a
province has more people living below the poverty line. However, an ILI score
above 1 for Male or Female life expectancy means that people are living longer,
which could be interpreted as a higher quality of life. A variety of cases can be
made for the lowest quality of life for Malaku as it scores lowest on most
indicators. However, students should present their cases for each province they
think has the lowest quality of life.
10. Which province has the highest quality of life? Why?
This question also requires students to compare each province along each
indicator. Jakarta has the largest ILI for Electricity, the lowest Infant Mortality, but
the highest amount of people living in poverty. East Jawa, North Sumatra and
North Sulawesi all have very close indicators, which should allow students to
argue various points in their responses.
11. Give examples of what you think are poor quality-of-life indicators used in
Table 4 and what you think are good indicators.
Students should challenge each indicator as a poor indicator of quality of life, as
it is incomplete. However, they can also make cases for why each indicator is
one example of some aspect of life that is important.
12. What indicators are missing that are important measures of quality of life?
Students could list many different items such as televisions, income, crime
prevention, public safety, numbers of teachers and doctors, absence of conflict,
economic crisis, literacy, employment, etc.
13. What do you think might account for the quality-of-life differences among
Indonesia's provinces?
This question should generate discussion of reasons for uneven development
(spatial inequality), for which there are many, such as:
Physical geography-islands, distance, difficulty of terrain, weather, economic
resources such as crops and minerals
Economic relations between islands
Ethnic differences and separatist movements (note late 1990s rebellion in East
Timor)
Class relations, economic differences among people
14. In this space, write your report from your United Nations Development
Program team. Your report should make recommendations for improving the
quality of life among Indonesia's provinces.