Executive Summary
The World Development Indicators is a data set compiled by the World Bank from internationally reputable sources to generate an index of hundreds of variables that give information on individual country by year. These indicators range from people per 100 tractors to infant mortality. The WDIs are the most current and accurate information available at the national, regional and global level.
In this project, we analyzed the relationship among country’s development level and people’s life quality.
The common macroeconomic theory indicated that people would benefit from country’s continuous development, and people with better life quality in return would speed up the development of the country. In this project, we chose six countries including the United States, United Kindom, Japan, Germany, China, and India and performed empirical analysis to evaluate whether people’s quality of life actually improved in thorough measurement metrics.
Through analysis, we conclude that:
All countries have enjoyed continuous growth, but 2008 global crisis made this growth much slower, and for some countries, the growth nearly stopped.
People’s life quality improved a lot with the growth of each country. It is consistent with our testing hypothesis that people will benefit from country’s development for having better welfare and more convenient life.
Even after 2008 global financial crisis, the growth was adversely affected, however, the improvement of people’s life in each country didn’t stop.
Even China and India are categorized as developing countries, people’s life quality improved a lot during these 14 years based its increasing percentage of GDP, household income and expenditure, electricity access, Internet usage, and renewable energy output and reuse.
However, there is still room for further improvement compared with other developed countries. For instance, only around half of the population has access to Internet in India.
GDP per capita growth (annual %)
Data Visualization Result and Conclusion- GDP per capita growth (annual %)
• Over the periods of 2000-2014, countries’, including United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, China, and India, GDP per capital growth fluctuated. In 2009, GDP per capital growth percentage of each country reached its lowest point due to the global financial crisis, except for China’s. China’s GDP went up considerably from 2000 to 2007 and went down year by year afterwards.
• Developed countries like United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany had higher GDP growth before crisis, it was expected that people’s life quality and welfare were better, compared to developing countries like China and India. After the crisis, developed countries people’s life quality were negatively impacted, but were able to go back to the level where they were supposed to be. Developing countries’ people’s life quality were expected to get better year by year.
Household final consumption expenditure per capita growth (annual %)
Data Visualization Result and Conclusion- Household final consumption expenditure per capita growth (annual %)
• Household final consumption is an effective indicator measuring the purchasing power of each family, and it is connected closely with macroenomic environment. It is expected that the development of the country will lead to higher purchasing power of its citizen.
• From the graph, we could see that developing countries including China and India had positive grow the year by year during the period of 2000-2014. For developed countries including U.S., U.K, Japan, Germany had relatively smaller growth pre-crisis; had negative growth after crisis; and had positive growth again after recovering.
• For countries, which were affected by the crisis, were expected that people’s purchasing power was decreased. While China and India’s purchasing power had been increased over the period.
Access to electricity (% of population)
Data Visualization Result and Conclusion- Access to electricity (% of population)
• Over the 14-year time frame, U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan, China had access to electricity with continuously increasing population, reaching 100% all the time. While only 50%-75% of Indian people could access to electricity.
• The percentage of population with access to electricity tell how well of people’s living environment is. If a country with all its people having access to electricity, it means the country’s economy is relatively better and people’s life quality is better as well. Among the six countries, Indian people’s life quality were not as good as people’s in other five countries.
Individuals using the Internet (% of population)
Data Visualization Result and Conclusion- Individuals using the Internet (% of population)
• Percentage of individuals using the Internet was continuously increasing among six countries.
• China and India’ population using Internet were a lot smaller than the population in U.S., U.K., Japan, Germany.
• India had the lowest rate and grew slowly. China remained steady growth year by year.
• The percentage of individuals using the Internet might be related to the rate of access to electricity.
• Overall, Internet usage rate has been increasing since 2000. The higher ratio indicates technology was included in the country’s development strategy and that more people live in a much more convenient life.
Renewable electricity output (% of total electricity output) and Renewable energy consumption (% of total final energy consumption)
Data Visualization Result and Conclusion- Renewable electricity output (% of total electricity output) and Renewable energy consumption (% of total final energy consumption)
• China had the highest renewable energy output percentage over the years due to its huge population and abundant natural resources. However, China’s consumption percentage decreased over the two decades, which suggested the pollution situation in China.
• India’s renewable energy output percentage had slightly increased but its consumption percentage decreased significantly, which implied the similar problem with China that the development came at the cost of environment.
• For the rest of countries, they had renewable energy output percentage and steady consumption percentage.
Urban population growth (annual %)
Data Visualization Result and Conclusion-Urban population growth (annual %)
• Urban population growth is an important indicator for a country’s economic development. With a booming economy, the urban population growth rate is usually decreasing due to the increasing urban population.
• The urban population growth in China and Japan had continuously decrease. Germany’s increased in the last three years. The urban population growth in United State, United Kingdom, and India the rate remained the same during the period.
• The difference in urban population growth rate might be due to the significant difference in each country’s total population. China had a much larger population base than the rest of countries’.
• Although the population growth is declining, the number of population can still increase significantly due to its population base.