Theme 7: Social Development
Theme 7: Social development
Measuring social development:
• Social development is a measure of how well a society is changing for the
better or how living standards are improving.
• Some indicators of social development:
1. Life expectancy
2. Education (literacy rates or years of schooling)
3. Number of people per doctor
4. Number of homeless people
5. Infant mortality rate (number of babies who die per 1000 live births under
the age of one)
Two areas that are frequently used to measure social development are
gender equality in a society and the health of its citizens.
Gender indicators:
1. Male and female literacy rates (shows whether equal access to education)
2. Male and female food consumption
3. Fertility rate (average number of births to a woman in her lifetime)
4. Male and female life expectancy
5. Employment type
The gender equality index (GII) measures gender inequalities in three key
aspects of human development: reproductive health, empowerment and
economic status.
1
, Theme 7: Social Development
Health indicators:
A range of indicators are used to measure not only the health of the citizens,
but also the state of the main health service provided within that country.
1. Average life expectancy
2. Infant mortality rate
3. Percentage of GDP spent on healthcare
4. Length of hospital waiting lists and waiting times
5. Mortality rate of specific healthy conditions such as cancer or heart
disease
High life expectancy and Low life expectancy
low IMR and high IMR
Government A wealthy government has A less wealthy
spending on prioritised spending so more government has spent
hospitals and clinic hospitals and better access less on healthcare and
to healthcare. so fewer doctors and
hospitals
Diet Variety of different foods Lack of food. Less
available. Population education about healthy
educated about healthy diet. diet
Access to safe More and easier access to Lack of easy access to
drinking water and clean water. Most people clean water. Shanty
state of sanitation have clean water piped to towns often have no, or
their homes an unreliable, sewer
system
2
Theme 7: Social development
Measuring social development:
• Social development is a measure of how well a society is changing for the
better or how living standards are improving.
• Some indicators of social development:
1. Life expectancy
2. Education (literacy rates or years of schooling)
3. Number of people per doctor
4. Number of homeless people
5. Infant mortality rate (number of babies who die per 1000 live births under
the age of one)
Two areas that are frequently used to measure social development are
gender equality in a society and the health of its citizens.
Gender indicators:
1. Male and female literacy rates (shows whether equal access to education)
2. Male and female food consumption
3. Fertility rate (average number of births to a woman in her lifetime)
4. Male and female life expectancy
5. Employment type
The gender equality index (GII) measures gender inequalities in three key
aspects of human development: reproductive health, empowerment and
economic status.
1
, Theme 7: Social Development
Health indicators:
A range of indicators are used to measure not only the health of the citizens,
but also the state of the main health service provided within that country.
1. Average life expectancy
2. Infant mortality rate
3. Percentage of GDP spent on healthcare
4. Length of hospital waiting lists and waiting times
5. Mortality rate of specific healthy conditions such as cancer or heart
disease
High life expectancy and Low life expectancy
low IMR and high IMR
Government A wealthy government has A less wealthy
spending on prioritised spending so more government has spent
hospitals and clinic hospitals and better access less on healthcare and
to healthcare. so fewer doctors and
hospitals
Diet Variety of different foods Lack of food. Less
available. Population education about healthy
educated about healthy diet. diet
Access to safe More and easier access to Lack of easy access to
drinking water and clean water. Most people clean water. Shanty
state of sanitation have clean water piped to towns often have no, or
their homes an unreliable, sewer
system
2
