Use with worksheet
©2012, TESCCC
INTRO TO
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY (HEI)
How are humans affected by
their environment?
The environment humans live in affects what
economic activities they choose
Economics is:
Studying how people use
their resources to make a
living
Economic geographers study how the location of
resources affect the ways people make and use goods
and services
 Humans have moved from simple
ways of making a living to very
complicated methods of making
money
 Economic geographers have broken
this development into four stages…
The Four Stages of an Economy
1.Primary
2. Secondary
3. Tertiary
4. Quaternary
Primary Stage
 In the first stage, human beings extract natural
resources from the earth
 This requires little or no technology, and mostly
uses physical labor
Primary Stage
Examples: Agriculture, Fishing, Mining, and
Forestry
Secondary Stage
 Manufacture
 In the next stage, humans take resources
(raw materials) and convert them into
finished, usable products
Secondary
Stage
 There are two main types of secondary activities:
 Heavy Industry: Produces large industrial products, like
ships or machines
 Light Industry: Produces goods people consume(buy),
like clothing, food, or household things
Tertiary Stage
 Provide Services
 At this stage, humans earn
money based on services they
provide
 These activities involve
intangible goods
Tertiary
Stage
 Examples: Banking,
Hospitals,
Transportation,
Distribution,
Entertainment…
Quaternary Stage
 In the highest stage, humans produce intellectual
goods
 These are things that require high technology and
education to produce
Quaternary
Stage
The modern world is so complicated that humans have
highly specialized jobs to manage it all
Air Traffic Control; Encrypted Communications
Quaternary
Stage
EExamples:
-High tech
communication
-Computers
-Research
-Consulting
-Colleges
Development
 Human beings have
spent centuries
developing from primary
to quaternary activities

Some countries
are far more
developed than
others
Development
Developing or Lesser-developed countries have
economies based mostly on the primary and
secondary sectors
Development
 Developing countries do not have the complex
infrastructure of developed countries
 Infrastructure: the necessary structures that are
needed for economic activities
 Roads
 Water Supply
 Sewage
 Electrical Grids
 Communications
Development
Developed countries earn most of their money
from tertiary and quaternary activities, and no
longer rely on primary activities
 Tertiary and Quaternary activities are more
valuable, so developed countries are wealthier
Examples
 Developing
 Mexico, most of Latin




America
Most of Africa South of
the Sahara
India
China
Most of the Mideast

Developed
• The U.S.
• Canada
• Most of Europe
• Japan
• South Korea
• Australia
Vocabulary
 Subsistence agriculture: self-sufficiency
farming in which the farmers focus on
growing enough food to feed themselves and
their families.
 Commercial Agriculture: Large scale farming
or ranching done for profit.
Vocabulary, Cont.
 Cottage Industry: Home or village based
production.
 Commercial Industry: Factory-based
production.