Development & Geography

Development is the process of improving the conditions of people through diffusion of knowledge and technology. The U.N. defines development as a process of enlarging people’s ability to lead a long and healthy life, to acquire knowledge, and to have access to resources needed for a decent standard of living. With access to these three elements, people have greater opportunities to be creative and productive and to enjoy personal self-respect and guaranteed human rights.

Developed and Developing

Ecotourists from developed countries visit La Amistad International Park in Costa Rica. A developing country like Costa Rica can use its natural resources to promote development by attracting foreign investment.

Every place lies at some point along a continuum of development. Because many countries cluster at the high and low ends of the continuum of development, they can be divided into two groups:

A developed country, also known as a more developed country (MDC) and referred to by the U.N. as a very high developed country, has progressed further along the development continuum.

A developing country, also frequently called a less developed country (LDC), has made some progress toward development, though less than the developed countries. Recognizing that progress has varied widely among developing countries, the U.N. divides them into high, medium, and low developing.

Human Development Index

To determine the level of development of every country, the U.N. created the Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI measures the level of development for a country through a combination of three factors: a decent standard of living, a long and healthy life, and access to knowledge. Each country gets an overall HDI score based on combining the three factors. The highest HDI possible is 1.0, or 100 percent (Figure 10-2). The U.N. has computed HDIs for countries every year since 1980, although it has occasionally modified the method of computation.

Human Development Index (HDI), 2018

Developed countries are those with very high HDI scores. The other three classes are for developing countries.

Development Regions

Geographers refer to the HDI scores to divide the world into two developed regions and seven developing regions. North America and Europe are the two developed regions. The seven developing regions are Latin America, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Southwest Asia & North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa. Each region has an overall HDI score, shown in. Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the regions with the two lowest HDI scores. As we will see in this chapter, regions sometimes have unexpectedly high or low scores in particular factors.

Development Regions

The nine world regions are shown with their regional HDI score.

In addition to the nine regions, three other distinctive areas can be identified. Japan and South Korea are classified separately rather than included with the rest of East Asia because their level of development is much higher than that of their neighbors. The South Pacific is a much less populous area than the nine development regions; Australia (its most populous country) and New Zealand are developed, but the area’s other countries are developing. Russia has an HDI score that places it on the boundary between very high and high developed. As a result, Russia is classified some years as developed and other years as developing.

Pause and Reflect 10.1.1

Which developing regions appear to have relatively high diversity in the HDIs of individual countries?

A Decent Standard of Living