Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Geography
GeographyThe urban and economic world25 min★★★ difficulty

Measuring development and the changing economic world

One number can never describe a country. Learning why is one of the most useful things geography teaches you.

Part of your national curriculum
  • Human and physical geography: Understand population and urbanisation, including international development and the causes and effects of migration
  • Human and physical geography: Understand economic activity in the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors, and the change in their inter-relationships in different economic settings
  • Geographical skills and fieldwork: Interpret and analyse a range of quantitative and qualitative data, including statistical data on trends and relationships between geographical phenomena

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Compare development measures and explain economic change between sectors.

Key learning points

  • • Measures of development
  • • The demographic transition
  • • The four sectors
  • • Reducing the development gap

This lesson at a glance

  • 25 minutes
  • 17 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

developmentmeasureseconomicchangesectors

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 17 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 17

Watch first

Measuring development and the changing economic world

An English teaching video on this topic from Mr B. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Compare development measures and explain economic change between sectors.

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 17

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Measures of development

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

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Explore the idea

Part 3 of 17

Learn

Measures of development

Gross national income per head measures average income, adjusted for what money actually buys. Birth rate, death rate, infant mortality, life expectancy, literacy and people per doctor each capture one aspect. The Human Development Index combines income, life expectancy and years of schooling into a single figure between 0 and 1, which is more balanced than income alone but still an average that hides regional and gender inequality, informal work and quality of life.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 17

Learn

The demographic transition

As a country develops, death rates fall first as sanitation, food supply and medicine improve, so population grows rapidly. Birth rates fall later as women's education and employment increase, child mortality falls and contraception becomes available. Eventually both are low and population stabilises or ages. Placing a country on this model explains its population pyramid and the pressures it faces, from school places to pensions.

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Quick check

Part 5 of 17

Quick check

Which sector does software design belong to?

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Quick check

Part 6 of 17

Quick check

A limitation of GNI per head is that

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Learning cycle

Part 7 of 17

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · The four sectors

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

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Reset break

Part 8 of 17

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
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Explore the idea

Part 9 of 17

Learn

The four sectors

Primary work extracts raw materials: farming, fishing, mining. Secondary manufactures them. Tertiary provides services: retail, health, teaching, transport. Quaternary provides knowledge and research: software, biotech, design. Countries typically shift employment from primary to secondary during industrialisation, then to tertiary and quaternary. The UK has completed that shift; several NEEs are in the middle of it.

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Explore the idea

Part 10 of 17

Learn

Reducing the development gap

Strategies include investment by transnational corporations, which brings jobs and skills but can export profits; aid, which is fast in emergencies but can create dependency if poorly targeted; intermediate technology such as treadle pumps and improved stoves, which is affordable and repairable locally; micro-finance for small businesses; debt relief; and fair trade, which raises the share of the price reaching producers. Industrial growth and tourism can transform an economy, but both need infrastructure and can damage the environment if unmanaged.

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Quick check

Part 11 of 17

Quick check

In the demographic transition, which usually falls first?

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Quick check

Part 12 of 17

Quick check

A strength of intermediate technology is that it

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Explore the idea

Part 13 of 17

Worked example

Worked answer: explain why the Human Development Index is a better measure than income alone (6 marks)

Income per head only shows economic output, so a country with high oil revenue but poor schools and hospitals appears highly developed when most citizens are not (2). The HDI also includes life expectancy and years of schooling, which reflect whether that wealth is being converted into health and education for the population (2). It is still an average, so it hides inequality between regions, genders and ethnic groups and ignores freedom, safety and environmental quality, which is why geographers use it alongside other indicators rather than instead of them (2).

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Challenge round

Part 14 of 17

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

15

Challenge round

Part 15 of 17

Game · Fill the gaps

Finish the sentences

Choose the word that belongs in each gap.

Gross national income per head ____ average income, adjusted for what money actually buys.

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Mastery quiz

Part 16 of 17

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Measuring development and the changing economic world

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. A city's population doubles in twenty years. Which pressure is most likely?

  2. 2. Which sector does software design belong to?

  3. 3. A limitation of GNI per head is that

  4. 4. In the demographic transition, which usually falls first?

17

Lesson round-up

Part 17 of 17

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

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Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Flooding on the River Calder

The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.

Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.

Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
  2. Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
  3. Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.

  • Case study notes

    Writing

    Write the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.

    Half a page

  • Explain answer

    Writing

    Answer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.

    8–10 sentences

  • Map or sketch

    Diagram

    Draw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.

    1 map with a key

  • Data work

    Working out

    Plot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.

    1 graph + 1 sentence

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 17 · Watch & discover

How this is going

  • Not looked at yet

    Understand population and urbanisation, including international development and the causes and effects of migration

  • Not looked at yet

    Understand economic activity in the primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors, and the change in their inter-relationships in different economic settings

  • Not looked at yet

    Interpret and analyse a range of quantitative and qualitative data, including statistical data on trends and relationships between geographical phenomena

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