10 Geography Home

Task 1. Country Development Index

Task brief: 

Key question: How can we assess a countries development status?

For this project you will create your own composite development index.

Select a range of 6 indicators: social, environmental, and economic

(two of each) to measure country development

Note: Please don't use composite indicators such as the HDI. 

How to do the Country Development Index Task

Step 1. Choose a country

Introduce your country with a basic description and maps.

Step 2. Select the indicators for your composite indicator

Choose six (6) development indicators that you think provide a representative snapshot of development in your country.

For example.

  • Life expectancy

  • The infant mortality rate (per 1000 births)

  • The adult female literacy %

  • Gross National Income (GNI per capita)

  •  GINI index

  • Access to improved drinking water

Step 3. Explaining your indicator choice

  1. Define each indicator

  2. How is the indicator useful for measuring human development? 

  3. An example statistic global/country. IE World IMR

  4. An annotated graph example

Step 4. Enter the data in the indicators calculator

  1. Download the index spreadsheet

  2. Evaluate the importance of each indicator in determining human development and decide on the weighting (2 less important and 3 more important).

  3. Enter the development data for each country.

Step 5. Analyse and compare your results

  • Describe the results for your new composite indicator.

  • Use annotated graphs to explain the results.

  • How well does your new indicator represent development in the selected countries?

  • Make recommendations for improving future indicator design