Choose a new development indicator not used in Activities 1-3, i.e. something other than GDP per capita, percentage of the labor force engaged in nonagricultural labor, infant mortality and female literacy rates. Use any sources you wish other than our Area and Demographic Data, but be sure to note the sources from which you acquire data. Your new indicator should measure a different aspect of development that you feel is an important part of development but which was not well represented by the four indicators in Activities 1-3. Many options are available. Although there are no absolutely correct indicators, there are many incorrect or flawed indicators that you should avoid. These include so-called mass variables that measure the grand total of something in a country, such as total GDP or total number of doctors. Mass variables tend to be large for large countries and small for small countries and not very good for comparing countries. Your new variable should therefore be in the form of a rate, a percentage, or a per capita variable, as in doctors per 1000 inhabitants, for instance. Also avoid variables that are determined largely by factors other than development. Inflation rate, oil production, and population density are variables that could easily be very low or very high regardless of a country’s level of development. Be able to justify the indicator’s importance to development. Enter the data for each of the 20 countries in Column D of Table 7.4.

If you use multiple sources for a single variable, be sure units of measurement are the same. Beware of metric versus imperial units, rates per 100 versus rates per 1,000, or such things as electricity or energy units that differ. Try to find data for the same year. If you are unable to find data for a variable for one or two countries, leave them blank. If more than two countries are missing, use other sources or choose a new variable.

In Column E, rank the values from Column D. Ranks will be from 1 to 20, and each country should have a different, whole number ranking (except in the case of ties). The country with the value indicating the highest level of development (relative to that variable) will be ranked 20. The country with the value indicating the lowest level of development (relative to that variable) will be ranked 1. Think carefully about whether a high value of your variable indicates a high level of development. Remember, for example, that low infant mortality rates and high literacy rates both indicate higher development.

In the box below, define the units in which your variable is measured, that is, in percent, per 1000 people, per million people, per km2, in $, in miles, etc.), and the source from which you obtained the data. Also specify which year the data represent. Also justify your choice of this particular variable as an indicator of development. That is, explain why it is a valid indicator, and what aspect of development it measures. Be sure to explain whether higher or lower values of the variable indicate higher development.