WORLD
DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS 2000
The
World Bank Group |
The World Development Indicators (WDI) is the World
Bank's premier annual compilation of data about development. WDI 2000 includes 800
indicators in 85 tables, organized in six sections: world view, people, environment,
economy, states and markets, and global links. The tables cover 148 economies and 14
country groups - with basic indicators for a further 58 economies.
Statistical Methods
Primary Data Documentation
Acronyms & Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index of Indicators
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Worldview
A sixth
of the world’s people produce 78 percent goods and services and receive 78
percent of world income—an average of $70 a day. Three-fifths of the world’s
people in the poorest 63 countries receive 6 percent of the world’s income—less
than $2 a day. But their poverty goes beyond income. While 7 of every 1,000 children die
before age five in high-income countries, more than 90 die in low-income countries. How do
we bridge these huge and grow-ing income gaps, matched by similar gaps in social living
standards? Can the nations of the world work together to reduce the numbers in extreme
poverty? This is the fundamental challenge of the 21st century.
Introduction
1.1 Size of the economy
1.2 Development progress
1.3 Gender differences
1.4 Trends in long-term economic
development
1.5 Long-term structural change
1.6 Key indicators for other economies
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People
The next billion people: who? where?
No social phenomenon has attracted more attention in the past half century than the
“population explosion”—that surge from about 2.5 billion people in 1950 to
more than 6 billion in 1999, making the 20th century one of unprecedented population
growth. As the number of people grew, the interval for adding another billion people
became shorter and shorter, with the increase from 5 billion to 6 billion occurring in
only 12 years. According to recent projections, the 7 billion mark will be exceeded in
2014—the first time since reaching one billion that adding the next billion people is
expected to take longer than for the previous billion.
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Environment
More people are using more natural resources than ever, and
demand will only increase. Food supply needs to double in the next 35 years to satisfy the
growth of populations and economies. This will happen, to a large extent, at the expense
of forests, wetlands, and biodiversity. More than a fifth of the world’s tropical
forests have been cleared since 1960, and at least 484 animal species and 654 plant
species have become extinct since 1600 (Watson and others 1998).
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Economy
Economic
growth alone will not eliminate poverty in the world. But if it is equitable growth
that reaches the poor, it can create the opportunities and resources to reduce poverty.
Similarly, development assistance, no matter how well intended, cannot guarantee that
economies will grow. To be effective, it must be used wisely.
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States and markets
Poor countries—and poor
people—suffer not only because they have less capital than rich countries. They
also suffer because they have less scientific and technical knowledge. Without skills and
information, it is difficult to combat disease, raise crop yields, improve general
welfare, and get credit at fair interest rates. If countries don’t narrow this
“knowledge gap,” they could wind up stuck with lower living standards.
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Global
links
Trade, investment, foreign aid, migration, and tourism are
all evidence of the many ties between nations that have come to be termed
“globalization.” This section documents the flow of goods, resources, and people
through the global economy. But the forces of globalization appear throughout the book:
population growth and changing patterns of employment, the pressure that economic and
demographic change has placed on the world’s resources, the expansion of service
industries and the growing trade in services, and the growth of telecommunications and the
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