Use demographic data to determine a country's Level of Development.

Interactive exercise. Assistance may be required. Use the table and step by step procedures below to practice analyzing demographic data. Start with Step 1 and then click the arrow in the box to proceed to the next step.*


Source: Human Development Reports, http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics

*These developmental categories are very general because there's no rigid standard as to when a country moves from one category to another. As a rule of thumb for more developed countries, the literacy rate should be close to 99%, life expectancy at least 76 years, and GDP per capita over $25,000 (some reports use Gross National Income instead of Gross National Product, which is just a different way of measuring total economic wealth).

Newly industrialized countries may excel in one of these categories, but not another. The leading indicator for a newly industrialized country is a mid-range, but growing GDP per capita. Brazil's GDP per capita has almost doubled since 2000 as it has modernized its economy.

Finally, less developed countries, as seen in the example above, frequently have literacy rates below 70%, life expectancy under 70 years, and a GDP per capita under $8,000.

The important thing to understand is that level of development refers to the overall state of a nation and there are many ways to measure it. The following are some other indicators.

  • Distribution of the Labor Force is an indicator that determines how many people work in particular occupations. For example: A less developed nation like Afghanistan has a labor force distribution of – agriculture 78.6%, industry 5.7%, services 15.7%. This means that most of the population works in agriculture that supplies the nation's food.

    While in the United States, a more developed nation, the labor force distribution is - farming, forestry, and fishing 0.7%, manufacturing, extraction, transportation, and crafts 20.3%, managerial, professional, and technical 37.3%, sales and office 24.2%, other services 17.6%. This means that less than 1% of workers are in agriculture and the rest of the labor force is varied.
  • Energy consumption can also be used as an indicator to determine the level of development. Energy consumption is the percentage of energy (usually electricity) that is used by a country.

    For example: In a more developed country, such as Japan, energy consumption is 858.5 billion kWh. Japan is ranked #4 in the world in consumption; this is most likely due to Japan having the ability to supply electricity to most of its population.

    However, a less developed nation, such as Haiti, has energy of consumption of only 309 million kWh. It is ranked # 166 in the world in consumption; this is due to the lack of electricity available in the country.