How is economic development measured?

Economic development is measured by Gross National Product (GNP), population growth, occupational structure of the labor force, urbanization, consumption per capita, infrastructure, and social conditions. Here is a closer look at each one of these contributing factors to how economic development is measured:

• Gross National Product (GNP)

Gross National Product (GNP) refers to the total market value of all products or goods and services a country produces in one economic year. GNP is normally measured per capita, meaning that good and bad GNP numbers also depend on a country's population. The more that a country produces per person, the more economically developed it is considered to be.

• Population growth

Economic development is also measured by a country or region's population and its growth over periods of time. In general terms, countries with rapid amounts of population growth tend to be more on the poor side, meaning they are less economically developed than some other countries that experience a more steady rise in population growth, and not a rapid one.

• The occupational structure of the labor force

As countries experience economic development the occupational structure of their labor force changes. This measurement is looked at through several different activities that are considered contributing factors, these are:

• Primary activities: sees a labor force removing resources from the earth, this includes activities like mining, agriculture, fishing, and lumbering

• Secondary activities: this activity sees labor forces converting a country's resources into finished goods to be sold on the market, this mainly concerns manufacturing

• Tertiary activities: This set of activities sees labor forces doing more advanced forms of work and mostly deals with the service sector of a country's economy, examples include retail, education, banking and finance, and transportation

In countries experiencing less economic development, their labor force mostly works in the primary activities category. While countries experiencing a lot of economic development have a large amount of their labor force doing tertiary activities.

• Urbanization

Urbanization refers to the amount of a country's population that lives in an urban area, such as cities, and suburbs.

• Consumption per capita

Consumption per capita can be a strong indicator of how economically developed a country is, thus making it a crucial component in the measuring process. In simple terms, it tends to be the case that the more a country's citizens consume, the more economically developed that country is.

• Infrastructure

A country's infrastructure is determined by the foundations of its society and includes items like cities, transportation, communications, energy distribution, farms, factories, schools, hospitals, roads, and emergency services like police. Countries with solid infrastructure tend to be more economically developed.

Social conditions are another way to measure a country's economic development. To measure and chart the social conditions of a country we look at different factors, like:

• The country's literacy rate

• The life expectancy of its citizens

• Health care options

• Caloric intake (food availability overall)

• Infant mortality

• Many other important markers

Depending on the data concerning these social conditions and many others, a country's economic development can be accessed.