Born One Second Apart, Worlds Apart
🌍 Born One Second Apart, Worlds Apart
The other baby is born in Chad, in central Africa. He has a 10% chance of dying before his fifth birthday. If he survives childhood, he will probably live to 53 — three decades less than his Japanese counterpart born at the same second. He will grow up in a country where the average person earns less than $700 a year, where one in four adults cannot read, and where a drought can wipe out a family's entire food supply in a single season.
No choice was made. No effort was required. Simply being born in the wrong place — by perhaps a few hundred miles — determines access to healthcare, education, safety, and opportunity on a scale that would be hard to believe if the data did not confirm it.
This is the development gap: the enormous and persistent difference in quality of life between the world's richest and poorest countries. Understanding why it exists, how we measure it, and whether we can close it is what this topic is all about. And it matters — because in the real world, these numbers represent real lives.
Geography glossary
- What is GNI per head?
- Gross National Income divided by population, showing average income per person.
- What is a development indicator?
- A measure used to compare a country's level of development, such as life expectancy or income.
Development refers to the process by which a country improves the quality of life of its people — economically (rising incomes), socially (better health and education), and politically (stronger institutions and freedoms). But here is the key thing that most students miss: development is not just about money. A country
Earn the mark scheme marks
🧠 Exam Framework: CHILD
Use CHILD to remember the factors that cause the development gap. In exam answers, try to explain how these factors interact rather than listing them separately — top marks go to answers that show how one cause leads to another.
Remember the country categories:
- LIDC = Low-Income Developing Country (Ethiopia, Chad, Niger) — lowest HDI, largely agricultural, most dependent on aid
- NEE = Newly Emerging Economy (Nigeria, India, Brazil, China) — rapidly industrialising, growing middle class, significant manufacturing
- HIC = High-Income Country (UK, Germany, Japan, USA) — post-industrial, service-led, high HDI
Now try it yourself
Quiz · Question 1 of 17
The Human Development Index (HDI) combines which three measures?
Tap an answer to check it
This topic in real past papers
Every real exam question we've found on development gap and global development, with a full worked answer.
AQA Paper 2
Take the raw figures given in a table and calculate the mean, median or interquartile range, showing enough working to earn the method mark even if the final answer slips.
AQA Paper 2
Weigh up a statement or strategy using resource evidence and your own understanding, reaching a view rather than only listing points.
AQA Paper 2
Close Section B with detailed, named knowledge and a considered judgement, without the SPaG marks that Section A's closing question carries.