Common characteristics of developing countries

When considering the characteristics shared by developing countries, it is

important to note that these do not apply uniformly to all developing countries.
Different countries can be considered as more or less developed with respect
to different characteristics. It is difficult to arrive at conclusions regarding
levels of development without looking at each characteristic for each country
individually.

Common characteristic Explanation

Low standards of living, Developing countries tend to have low levels of
characterised by low health and education, with many youth working
incomes, inequality, poor the land to earn an income for the family and
health and inadequate dismissing the need for an education. Health is
education also regarded as an expense that many cannot
afford to pay for or live too far away to access.
Indicators of low living standards include income
per person, poverty rate, access and quality of
health care (life expectancy), income growth
inequality, Disposable Energy, and educational
standards, lack of housing

Low levels of productivity The scarcity of capital goods and technology

(output per person) signify low levels of productivity of labour in
developing countries, or lower levels of output
produced per hour of work. Improvements in
labour productivity are a key source of economic
growth and this is made possibly by increases in
the quantities of physical capital. It has also been
made possible by increases in the quality of K
through the use of technology and increases in
human K.
High rates of population In 2010 the world population was approximately
growth and dependency 6.9 billion, with only 15.9% of people living in
burdens more developed countries. By 2030, experts
believe that the worlds population will grow to 8.5
billion and this will stabilise by the end of the
present century to about 9-10 billion. The majority
of growth will take place in developing countries,
creating a huge burden on the developing world in
regard to employment opportunities,
environmental sustainability, improvements in
health services, education, infrastructure and
improving the standards of living for the poor
The crude birth rate is the number of live births
per 1000 people occurring among the population
of a given geographical area over a period of a
 year.
Less developed countries have a higher birth rate
than developed ones. This could be due to a
number of factors such as lack of education, a
more pressing need for children/descendants,
less emphasis placed on the burden of children,
high infant mortality rate. Niger 50, Afghan
45.1, Aus 13.3, UK 12.9, US 12.7.
The dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of
those typically not in the labour force (the
dependent part) and those in the labour force (the
productive part). It is used to measure the
pressure on productive population.
As per above, the child dependency ratio
measures those aged (0-14) over those aged (15-
64). The old age dependency ratio is (65+)/(15-
64)

High and rising levels of Developing countries tend to experience high

unemployment and rates of unemployment and can average
underemployment anywhere between 10-20% of the labour force.
We are already aware of the problems
statisticians encounter when attempting to collect
and collate unemployment data for developed
nations, which means it, is even more difficult to
collect such data for developing economies.
There, we can only make estimates regarding the
unemployment rate as opposed to an exact figure.
The three groups that need to be considered
when looking at the issue of unemployment for
developing countries are those who have
unemployed for so long they have given up
(discouraged workers), hidden unemployed and
underemployed.
Substantial dependence Many developing nations rely on their agricultural
on agricultural production sector, with relatively low income elasticities of
and primary product demand for agricultural products playing a role in
exports reducing the relative size of the agricultural sector
as a country grows and develops. Unfortunately,
as many developed countries experienced years
ago, agricultural sectors are slowly being replaced
by industry and services. In most cases we can
determine that the lower the level of GNI per
capita (US$ PPP), the larger the contribution to
the agricultural sector. An example of this is
where the UKs GNI per capital is 46, 730 and its
agriculture as a %age of GDP is 1 and where
Ugandas GNI per capital is 1, 190 and its
contribution of agriculture is 34% of GDP (world
bank)
Prevalence of imperfect The problems associated with having developing
markets and limited economies run based on a more market
information orientated approach are opportunities for
exploitation, the lack of certain features that will
allow it to be successful (such as a functional
banking system, legal system, infrastructure and
accurate informational systems)
Imperfect markets and imperfect knowledge
Dominance, It is fair to say that many developing nations rely
dependence, and heavily on developed nations, especially in regard
vulnerability in to both the political and economic aspects. They
international relations depend on developed nations for many things
such as trade, access to new and improved
technology, aid and most important investment.
Some problems associated with their heavily
reliance on developed countries is that they can
be exploited and often adversely affected by the
decisions of developed nations. It could be
considered that it would be in the best interest of
developing nations to act as a trading bloc as
opposed to a trade unions as it would allow them
to benefit form the gains of collective bargaining