Development and inequality
Geography · Key Stage 3 · The School
Measuring development
GDP PER CAPITA measures average income and hides how it is shared. The HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX combines income, life expectancy and education, which is broader but still an average. Literacy, infant mortality and access to clean water each tell you something GDP cannot. Use several, and say what each one misses.
Why it is uneven
Physical factors: landlocked position, drought, disease burden, natural hazards. Historical: colonialism, borders drawn without regard to people, extraction of resources. Economic: debt, unfair terms of trade, reliance on a single export whose price you do not control. Naming only one of the three is the commonest weak answer.
Closing the gap
AID can help and can create dependency. TRADE can lift incomes and can lock a country into low-value exports. MICROFINANCE, debt relief, and investment in girls' education all have evidence behind them. Intermediate technology — appropriate to local skills and materials — often outlasts grand projects.
Equatorial Guinea has a GDP per head comparable to some European countries, from oil. But life expectancy is around 60, and a large share of the population lacks clean water and secondary schooling. Rank it by GDP and it looks developed; rank it by HDI, which adds life expectancy and education, and it falls a long way. A mean income says nothing about DISTRIBUTION — which is why geographers quote several indicators.