Help
development — English
The level of economical, cultural and social well-being of a certain population or region or country. Initially, the economic well-being (that is, the wealth) of the population was regarded as the sole measure of its level of development. Economic development is the process of using resources to improve human well-being and this purely economic measure was seen as the actual level of development of a society (see “developed countries” and “economic growth”). However, it was realised that wealth and poverty are relative concepts, not absolute ones, since the equivalent amount of money would not be able to buy the same amount or quality of goods and services in different countries. Consequently, per capita income should not be regarded as the ultimate measure of the development of any group of people. It became clear that cultural and social variables also have to be taken into account. The United Nations (UN) then developed a commonly accepted measure of development based on economic, cultural and social variables. The human development index (HDI) takes a variety of variables into account, namely per capita gross domestic product (GDP) which is a measure of the wealth of the population, mean education level of the population which is a cultural variable, and longevity (life expectancy) which is a social variable. Note that even the HDI is to an extent a relative measure because it includes per capita income of the population. The HDI is commonly used to express the level of development of a population or a country. The most important criticism of the UN’s HDI is that it does not take human rights and personal freedom into account. Therefore, the HDI alone should not be used to describe the level of development of a population or country. (See “developing countries” and “countries in transition (CITs)”.)
