What Makes a Country Developed?

Countries are usually characterized as either being developed or developing. There are many qualities that can indicate weather or not a country is developed and what stage of development it is in. Geographers use a number of technologies and research methods to evaluate a country's economy, quality of life, and overall environment in order to determine its development. A country should be considered developed if it has a low population growth rate, a relatively high gross domestic product, and a high human development index.

Population Growth Rate

Population growth in developing countries is usually higher due to lack of education and access to birth control and contraceptives for women. On the left is a population pyramid of Sweden, a country considered to be one of the most developed in the world, where not only are 96% of women receiving high quality education, but more women than men receive a post-secondary education of three or more years. On the right is a population pyramid of Yemen, a developing country, where most women do not receive education and only 40.5% of them are literate as opposed to the literacy rate of men which is 77%. Since women in developing countries are less likely to go to school, they are very unlikely to find jobs which forces them to rely on their husbands to work while they raise children. Little access to birth control and contraceptives in developing countries results in women having 4-5 children as opposed to Sweden where most women have 1-2.

Gross Domestic Product

A high or increasing GDP is often related to a country's economic prosperity. Sweden's GDP has always been drastically higher than Yemens, and it has also been on a steady incline since 2015 while Yemens has been decreasing since 2013. Swedens GDP has not dipped below $46,000 while Yemens has never reached $1,500. A high GPD indicates that more jobs are being created, more goods and products are being produced, and more workers are likely to receive raises in their salary.

Human Development Index

The human development index of a country can indicate the populations quality of life, general health, and education quality. Countries aim to have an HDI close to 1. Sweden is depicted as dark green while Yemen is shown as mint green. Sweden has an HDI of 0.945, placing it at 7 out of 189 countries meaning it has a very high human development rate. Yemen has an HDI of 0.470, placing it at 179 out of 189 countries suggesting that it has a very poor human development rate. It can be very hard to measure a countries social development, but HDI as a very useful measure of development as it includes both economic and social indicators to draw a conclusion.

Conclusion

Looking back at the comparisons between Sweden and Yemen, it is a reasonable claim to say that Sweden is a very developed country while Yemen is a developing country. According to the population pyramids alone, Sweden is shown to be in stage 4 of the demographic transition model while Yemen seems to be in stage 2. When adding in the economic and social indicators that the GDP and HDI's of the countries measure, it is clear that Sweden is far more developed than Yemen.