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Measuring social development – WJECDevelopment vs social development

Social development refers to the way society is changing. Geographers always want to know if people’s lives are changing, in what way they're changing and if the change is for the better. Development is a continuum scale which is dynamic and forever changing. Countries and people can be at different stages of the development continuum.

Part of GeographySocial development

Development vs social development

Development means ‘change’. Often, development is best measured using wealth as an . The wealth of a country can easily be compared using the of gross domestic product (). In 2016, according to the United Nations (UN) the USA was the wealthiest country in the world.

Social development is often much harder to measure. This is because instead of using economic indicators, which are often reliable, and inform us of the state of a country’s economy, measuring social development assesses how developed the people’s lives are within a country or region. Just because a country has a large GDP, does not mean that all the people within that country are also wealthy. There may be regions where extreme exists, or where people have limited access to education. This is why understanding social development is important to geographers.

Factors influencing development

The factors influencing a country’s development are often complex. Social, historical, political and economic factors all have a role to play. Understanding these reasons and why a country may be poor is also a way to help it to develop.