The development of a country
The development of a country is identified by examining the qualitative changes that have occurred over time. The changes include how the nation has restructured its economy along with it progress in social and technological aspects. These facets are primarily related to the country’s economic growth which makes growth a paramount condition in development. However, growth does not necessarily suffice all the requirements for development. Amartya Sen defined development as a concept that creates freedom and removes all other obstacles to freedom. These obstacles are poverty, illiteracy, poor health, poor governance, etc. By looking at economic development, this paper would be comparing the development of the United Kingdom and that of Germany.
Keywords: Development, Indicators, Literacy, GDP, Comparing, Germany, United Kingdom
Comparison between Germany and UK Development
A country’s development shows its social and economic advancement. Development can be defined as per Amartya Sen definition which considers development as an expansion of human choices and a reduction of the deprivations such as health problems, hunger, humiliation, illiteracy, insecurity, political rights and freedom among others. This paper aims to compare the economic development of Germany and the United Kingdom by focusing on the five main economic development indicators.
The Human Development Index (HDI)
The HDI is one of the measures of economic development. This measure looks at three dimensions which are the health, education and per capita income. While looking at both countries, the latest 2016 HDI of Germany showed great improvement which was 0.96 score, a significant increase which shows a rise from 0.84 in 1996 (United Nations Development Programme, [UNDP] 2016). While looking at the UK, its HDI lags Germany at 0.90 (UNDP, 2016). The UK HDI is a fall that was contributed by higher levels of inequalities.
GDP per capita
The GDP per capita measures the overall country’s output by taking the gross domestic product (GDP) and dividing it by the country’s total population. In 2017, the Germany GDP per capita for was 46747.19 USD (Trending Economics, 2018). Even though that Germany’s GDP per capita has fluctuated considerably in the past few years, the country's trend from 1998 to 2017 demonstrates a growing economy. On the other hand, the UK GDP per capita recorded value of 42514.49 USD in 2017 (Trending Economics, 2018). However, this reading is a fall from $40,530 which was recorded in the previous years.
Gross National Product (GNP)
The GNP is like GDP only that it includes the values of the services produced both at home and overseas. The Germany GNP recorded at 1,005.22 USD billions in December 2017 (CEIC, 2018). According to the Germany GNP rose from the previous records moving back from the September 2017 when it had recorded 996.05 USD billions. On the other hand, the United Kingdom’s GNP was recorded at 2,587.66 USD billions in December 2016. However, this was a fall from the records of 2015 December where it had recorded 2,821.76 USD billions.
Life Expectancy
Even though life expectancy is also calculated as a measure of economic development, there is a need to know that there are other factors that may terminate a life which may not be related to development such as accidents. According to WHO’s 2016 published data, the people of Germany life expectancy is 80 for males and 83 for females (World Health Organization, 2016). On the other hand, the life expectancy of the people in the United Kingdom was estimated at 79.4 for males and 83.0 for females (WHO, 2016). Regarding life expectancy, the UK ranks number 20 while Germany ranks at 24.
Adult Literacy
Adult literacy is mostly calculated as the percentage of the country’s people aged 15 years, and above who with understand, they can read and write either short or straightforward statements in their general life. In Germany, the literacy test has remained at 99% both for males and females up to 2014 (KNOEMA, 2017). In the UK, the results are like those of Germany at 99% for both men and women up to 2014 (KNOEMA, 2017).
Conclusion
This paper aimed to compare economic development between Germany and the UK. The paper has looked at the five leading indicators of development and provided the rates for both countries. The indicators that the essay has discussed are the Human Development Index, life expectancy, adult literacy, Gross National Product (GNP) and GDP per capita.
References
CEIC. (2018). Germany Gross National Product | Economic Indicators. Retrieved July 13, 2018, from https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/germany/gross-national-product
KNOEMA. (2017). Adult literacy rate, 2007-2017 - knoema.com. Retrieved July 13, 2018, from https://knoema.com/atlas/ranks/Adult-literacy-rate
Trending Economics. (2018). United Kingdom GDP per capita | 1960-2018 | Data | Chart | Calendar. Retrieved July 13, 2018, from https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/gdp-per-capita
United Nations Development Programme. (2016). | Human Development Reports. Retrieved July 13, 2018, from http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries/profiles/GBR
World Health Organization. (2016). WHO Life Expectancy. Retrieved July 13, 2018, from http://www.who.int/gho/countries/en/
