Status of Development Project: Definitions of Statistics/Indicators
1. Population - all the inhabitants of a particular town, area, or country.
2. Population Pyramid - also called an age pyramid or age picture diagram; a graphical illustration that
shows the distribution of all age groups in a population (typically that of a country or region of the
world), which forms the shape of a pyramid when the population is growing.
3. Population Growth Rate - the increase in a country's population during a period of time, usually one
year, expressed as a percentage of the population at the start of that period. It reflects the number of
births and deaths during a period and the number of people migrating to and from a country.
4. Birth Rate - the number of births per 1,000 population in a given year.
5. Death Rate - The number of deaths per 1,000 population in a given year.
6. Infant Mortality Rate - The number of deaths of infants under one year of age in a given year, per
1,000 live births in that year.
7. Life Expectancy - statistical measure of how long a person may live, based on the year of their birth,
their current age and other demographic factors including gender. At a given age, life expectancy is the
average number of years that is likely to be lived by a group of individuals (of age x) exposed to the same
mortality conditions until they die.
8. Total Fertility Rate - the average number of children a woman of childbearing years would have in her
lifetime. This rate is the most widely used measure to determine population growth. The
“replacement” fertility rate is 2.1.
9. Physician Density - the number of medical doctors (physicians), including generalist and specialist
medical practitioners, per 1,000 of the population. Medical doctors are defined as doctors that study,
diagnose, treat, and prevent illness, disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in
humans through the application of modern medicine.
10. Literacy Rate - percentage of persons aged 15 and over who can read and write.
11. School Life Expectancy - the total number of years of schooling (primary to tertiary) that a child can
expect to receive, assuming that the probability of his or her being enrolled in school at any particular
future age is equal to the current enrollment ratio at that age.
12. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Purchasing Power Parity or PPP) - A nation's GDP at purchasing
power parity (PPP) exchange rates is the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country
valued at prices prevailing in the United States in the year noted.
13. GDP per capita - a measure of the total output of a country that takes the gross domestic product
(GDP) and divides it by the number of people in the country. The per capita GDP is especially useful
when comparing one country to another because it shows the relative performance of the countries. A
rise in per capita GDP signals growth in the economy and tends to translate as an increase in
Status of Development Project: Definitions of Statistics/Indicators
productivity. However, keep in mind that per capita GDP tells you nothing about income inequality
within one nation.
14. Unemployment Rate - a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it is calculated as a
percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all individuals currently in the labor
force.
15. Internet Users - those who use the Internet from any location. The Internet is defined as a worldwide public computer network that provides access to a number of communication services including
the World Wide Web and carries email, news, entertainment and data files. Internet access may be via a
computer, Internet-enabled mobile phone, digital TV, games machine etc. Location of use can refer to
any location, including work. The indicator is derived by dividing the number of Internet users by total
population and multiplying by 100.
16. Cell Phone Users - total number of mobile cellular telephone subscribers.
17. Arable Land - capable of producing crops; suitable for farming; suited to the plow and for tillage:
arable land; arable soil.
18. Human Development Index - a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita
income indicators, which is used to rank countries into four tiers of human development.
Gross National Income (GNI) – whereas GDP is location based and reflects the value of goods and
services within a country, GNI reflects the value of goods and services within a country as well as the
value of goods and services abroad.
Gross National Income per capita (GNI per capita) – the GNI of a country divided by the country’s
population. The Human Development Index uses GNI per capita as one of the components
In addition to the definitions above that you are documenting for your country, you also need to be
familiar with the terms below concerning population and economic development:
Environment:
Biosphere - The part of Earth, including the air and water, that can support life.
Carrying Capacity - The greatest number of living species (including humans) that can be supported
in an area given its environmental conditions. For example, to raise one cow requires one
acre of rich pastureland or ten acres of scrub land.
Deforestation - The loss of forests due to over-cutting of trees. One consequence of deforestation is
soil erosion, which results in the loss of protective soil cover and the water-holding capacity
of the soil.
Desertification - The process by which semi-arid grassland becomes desert. This is usually caused by
overgrazing, drought, and climate change.
Status of Development Project: Definitions of Statistics/Indicators
Ecosystem - The community of plants and animals interacting with one another and the
environment.
Endemic -To be native to a particular people or country.
Finite Resources - Resources that are limited in quantity. When they are used, they cannot be
replaced.
Habitat - The place where a plant or animal species naturally lives and grows.
Land Degradation - To lower the quality of the land, making it less suitable for growing crops or
raising livestock. Land degradation is caused by overcropping, overgrazing, and using
farming methods that make the land less fertile.
Population:
Age Structure -The proportion of the population, or the number of people of each sex, at each age
level in a population, shown graphically with a population pyramid.
Demographic Momentum - The tendency of a previously growing population to keep expanding
even after reproductive rates have been reduced due to a large proportion of their
population entering their reproductive years.
Life Expectancy: The average number of years a person can expect to live.
Natural Increase: The surplus (or deficit) of births over deaths in a population in a given time
period.
Population Density: The average number of people who life in a measurable area. Divide the
number of inhabitants in an area by the amount of land they occupy to determine population density.
Also called arithmetic population density.
Physiologic Population Density: the number of people per unit area of agriculturally productive land.
Population Explosion: A phrase used to describe rapid population growth in the 20th and early 21st
centuries. This is caused by the world birth rate being much higher than the world death
rate.
Population Momentum: The tendency for population growth to continue beyond the rate that is
needed to exactly replace the dying population because of a relatively high concentration of
people in the childbearing years.
Expansive Population Policies: government-led efforts which encourage large families and raise the
rate of natural increase. Ex: Russia’s government offers cash subsidies of $10,000 to women who give
Status of Development Project: Definitions of Statistics/Indicators
birth to a second or third child. In Ulyanovsk Province, Russia there is a National Day of Conception.
People are offered the afternoon off from work to participate.
Restrictive Population Policies: government-led efforts which seek to reduce the rate of natural
increase. Policies range from toleration of officially unapproved means of birth control to outright
prohibition of large families. Ex: China’s One-Child Policy
Goldilocks Moment: When fertility is high and a country is young (median age below 20), there are
huge numbers of children and the overall dependency ratio is high. When a country is ageing
(median age above 40), it again has a high dependency ratio, this time because of old people.
But the switch from one to the other produces a Goldilocks generation. Because fertility is
falling, there are relatively few children. Because of high mortality earlier, there are relatively
few grandparents. Instead, countries have a bulge of working-age adults. This happened to
Europe after the baby boom of 1945-65 and produced les trente glorieuses (30 years of
growth). It is happening now in some parts of Asia and Latin America.
Development:
Development: Meeting the basic needs (economic, health, nutrition, social services, infrastructure)
of people, and improving the standard of living in a society.
More Developed Country: A country with a high level of per capita income, industrialization,
infrastructure, and modernization. Such countries usually have lower levels of population
growth.
Less Developed Country: A country with a low level of per capita income, industrialization,
infrastructure, and modernization. Such countries usually have higher levels of
population growth and urbanization without industrialization. Most of these countries are located in
the tropical latitudes in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Emigration: The process of leaving one country or area to take up residence in another.
Immigration: The process of entering one country from another to live permanently.
Infrastructure: The foundation on which economic development is based. Includes the
transportation, communication, electrical, and water supply systems of a nation or
community.
Refugee: (1) A person who flees to a foreign country to avoid persecution in his/her own native
country or area. (2) An environmental refugee leaves his/her country because s/he cannot
survive given the conditions on the land.
Social Carrying Capacity: The maximum population that could be sustained under a given social
system and its associated patterns of resource consumption.
Status of Development Project: Definitions of Statistics/Indicators
Sustainable Development: Practices in agriculture, economic development, health, and
education that lead to progress and meet the needs and desires of the current generation
without decreasing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
Urbanization: Growth in the portions of a population living in areas of more than 2,500 people.
Levels of Economic Activity and Characteristics of Industry
Economic Activity is classified into different sectors – primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary. The
employment structure of a country shows how the labor force is divided into the different sectors.
Primary Level – gathering of raw materials to use immediately or in the making of a final product. Ex. mining, fishing, forestry and farming.
Secondary Level – secondary economic activities/industries are those that take the raw materials*
produced by the primary sector and process them into manufactured** goods and products.
*raw material: anything naturally occurring in or on the earth/in the sea before being processed. These
are obtained through primary activities such as mining, fishing, forestry and farming.
**manufactured: articles or goods produced by workers in secondary industries from raw materials.
Examples of secondary economic activities/industries include heavy manufacturing*, light
manufacturing**, food processing, oil refining, and energy production.
*heavy manufacturing: Industries like steel-making or textile production that are dependent on heavy
raw materials (coal and iron) and produce bulky goods.
**light manufacturing: Manufacturing where both the raw materials and final goods are less bulky and
can be easily transported. Examples of light industries include food processing and household electrical
goods.
Tertiary and Quaternary Levels
The tertiary sector is also called the services sector and involves the selling of services and skills. They
can also involve selling goods and products from primary and secondary industries. Examples of tertiary
employment include the health service, transportation, education, entertainment, tourism, finance,
sales and retail*
*retail: The commercial selling of goods and products.
The quaternary sector consists of those industries providing information services, such as computing,
ICT (information and communication technologies), consultancy (offering advice to businesses) and R&D
(research and development, particularly in scientific fields).
The quaternary sector is sometimes included with the tertiary sector, as they are both service sectors.
The tertiary and quaternary sectors make up the largest part of the UK economy, employing 76 % of the
workforce. Some consider there to be a branch of the quaternary sector called the quinary sector,
Status of Development Project: Definitions of Statistics/Indicators
which includes the highest levels of decision making in a society or economy. This sector would include
the top executives or officials in such fields as government, science, universities, nonprofit, healthcare,
culture, and the media.
Comparing Employment Structures of Countries
The employment structure of a country shows how the labor force is divided between the primary,
secondary and tertiary sectors. Different countries have different employment structures. The
employment structure of a given country can tell you quite a lot about its economy.
In the richest countries, for example, there will usually be more people working in the
tertiary/quaternary sector than in the primary and secondary sectors. In the poorest countries, there
tend to be more people working in the primary sector than in either the secondary or tertiary sectors.
Look at the diagram below. Based on the employment structure, which countries do you think are the
richest and poorest? Note that the quaternary sector has been included in the tertiary sector.
Changing Employment Structures over Time
Employment structures can also change over time within the same country.
In the UK in 1800 most people would have been employed in the primary sector. Many people worked
on the land, and made their living from agriculture and related products.
Status of Development Project: Definitions of Statistics/Indicators
During the industrial revolution, more people were needed to build ships, work in steel making and with
textiles. All of these jobs are found in the secondary sector. By 1900 over half of the workers in the UK
were employed in secondary industries.
Since 1900 mechanisation* meant that less people were required to work on the land and in industry, as
machines could carry out most of the work that people previously did.
* mechanisation: In industry where machines carry out tasks which humans used to do.
Foreign industries also became more competitive and imports such as coal became more affordable. As
the availability of coal declined in the UK, and also became more expensive to extract more coal was
imported. This led to a further decline in primary sector employment in the UK.
The demand for work increased in schools, hospitals and retail industries. Many people left the rural
areas in the search for jobs in the towns and cities. By the year 2000 over half of the UK workforce was
employed in tertiary industries and only a small number were employed in primary industries. This has
changed the work that people do, and also where they work. Quaternary industries are a relatively new
concept, and it is only recently that they have been added to these figures. However it is becoming an
important and growing sector in the UK as many firms want to carry out research and development for
their products.
Status of Development Project: Definitions of Statistics/Indicators
Line graph to show the UK employment structure from 1800 – 2000
Industrial Location Factors
Different industries require different inputs* Industries are more likely to locate where these inputs are
readily and cheaply available. Factors that influence where an industry locates include:
- power supply
- communications - including transport, telecommunications
- labour supply - including workers with the right skills
- access to market - where the goods are sold
- grants and financial incentives - usually from governments
- raw materials
*input: Everything that goes into a system. The three most common inputs in industry are physical
inputs, labour and capital.
Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/geography/economic_change/characteristics_industry_rev
1.shtml