Contents
"We have redesigned the World Development Indicators to expand its coverage of development issues in a new, free-standing format, complemented by a comprehensive database on CD-ROM and a redesigned World Bank Atlas. This new family of products embodies many aspects of the change we are trying to bring about at the World Bank Group.
"First, the selection of indicators reflects a broader, more integrated approach to development. The World Development Indicators starts from the premise that development is about the quality of life. It places people and poverty reduction first, at the center of the development agenda where they belong. In its five main sections it recognizes the interplay of a wide range of issues: human capital development, environmental sustainability, macroeconomic performance, private sector development, and the global links that influence the external environment for development.
"Second, the new World Development Indicators is an excellent example of global partnership in creating and sharing knowledge and in making knowledge a major force for development—an area where I see the World Bank playing an increasingly important role. I would like to thank our partners in the United Nations family, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the OECD, the statistical offices of more than 200 economies, and countless others who have made this unique product possible. Throughout the volume we have acknowledged their contributions in order to guide researchers and others seeking information to the many sources on which it draws..."

Foreword------ Copyright------ Acknowledgments------ Preface------ Acronyms and abbreviations
Partners------ Users guide------ Statistical methods------ Primary data documentation ------ Credits
Bibliography------ Index of indicators

World view
The organization and coverage of the World Development Indicators reflect the priorities of an institution dedicated to promoting economic development. The focus is on people, the environment, the economy, the relative roles of states and markets, and the links between industrial and developing economies. But what is development? And how do we measure it?
Life’s quality
Since the 17th century economists have viewed development as a means of improving standards of living and the quality of life in very broad terms. Sir William Petty, one of the first development economists, was interested not only in national income but also in such factors as "the Common Safety" and "each Man’s particular Happiness" (cited in Sen 1988).
"Ultimately," Amartya Sen argues that "the assessment of development achieved cannot be a matter only of quantification of the means of that achievement. The concept of development has to take note of the actual achievements themselves" (1988, p. 15). These achievements—Sen labels them as "functionings"—include the length of life (life expectancy) and the "nature of life" and what people value as important to their well-being (nourishment, good health, clean air and water, the ability to move about freely).
True, these values differ greatly from individual to individual, reflecting different aspirations, conceptions, abilities, and tastes—and from society to society, reflecting culture and tradition. Yet there clearly are certain basic needs common to all mankind for food, health, shelter, and personal freedoms, which if met constitute development (Dasgupta 1993).
In measuring development, it helps to distinguish between indicators that measure the "constituents" of development (such outcomes as health and literacy) and those that measure its "determinants," the goods and services that produce development or well-being, such as food, shelter, safe drinking water, clean air, education, health care, and real national income (Dasgupta and Weale 1992). Partha Dasgupta and Martin Weale show a strong correlation between the rankings of 48 developing countries for GNP per capita (adjusted for purchasing power parity) and their rankings for five other indicators (life expectancy, infant mortality, adult literacy, political rights, and civil rights). This leads Dasgupta to observe that "recent suggestions that national income is a vastly misleading index are not borne out by this exercise. We can do better than merely rely on national income, but we wouldn’t have been wildly off the mark as regards an ordinal comparison of countries had we relied exclusively on national income per head" (1993, p. 115).
Introduction
1.1--The quality of life
1.2--Gender dimensions of development
1.3--Structural transformation

People
The ultimate aim of development is to improve human well-being in a substantial and sustainable way. Human capital development-the product of education and improvements in health and nutrition-is both a part of and a means of achieving this goal.
The importance of investing in human capital has become clearer in recent years, with increasing evidence on how and to what extent such investments interact with other factors in development as forces for change. This section allows readers to evaluate how well different economies are doing in building human capital and extending human welfare.
Living standards have been improving all over the world. Globally, real GNP per capita has increased by more than 3 percent a year on average since the mid-1960s. But while only the East Asian miracle economies have been able to sustain this (or even higher) income growth for long periods, improvements in social indicators have been sustained in all regions for much of the past 25 years. Many developing countries have succeeded in reducing poverty, a few by as much as 50 percent (World Bank 1990). Average infant mortality rates for low- and middle-income countries have declined from 107 per 1,000 live births in 1970 to 60 in 1995; life expectancy at birth increased from an average 55 years to 64 years. The world today is healthier, better educated, and better fed than it was 25 years ago.
These achievements nevertheless mask vast disparities across regions and countries. Infant mortality remains above 90 per 1,000 live births in Sub-Saharan Africa and 70 in South Asia, compared with 40 for East Asia. Average life expectancy at birth is only 52 years in Africa, compared with more than 60 for other regions. Primary school enrollment in some African countries has declined, and secondary school enrollment is only 24 percent, compared with over 50 percent for some other developing regions. And as the world approaches the turn of the century, more than 1.3 billion people are living on less than $1 a day, and another 2 billion are only slightly better off. Most of the poor—about 60 percent—live in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which together account for 14 percent of the aggregate GDP of developing countries and 3 percent of the world's.
Introduction
2.1--Population
2.2--Population dynamics
2.3--Labor force structure
2.4--Employment
2.5--Poverty
2.6--Distribution of income or consumption
2.7--Education policy and infrastructure
2.8--Access to education
2.9--Educational attainment
2.10--Gender and education
2.11--Health spending and personnel
2.12--Access to health services
2.13--Risk factors in health
2.14--Mortality

Environment
Today some 1.5 billion people live exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution, 1 billion live without clean water, and 2 billion live without sanitation. Although food production doubled over the past quarter-century and outstripped population growth, the gains may have come at the cost of lost crop diversity and natural habitats—and more chemical contamination. Some estimates suggest that a seventh of the world’s tropical forests have been lost in the past 25 years.
These problems are not just local or national—they are global, as evidenced by growing regional pollution, epidemics of disease, the loss of biodiversity, potential global climate effects, and the possibility of "environmental refugees" leaving severely degraded areas.
Poverty arising from lack of economic development is at the root of many environmental problems. Only with accelerated economic development in poor countries can environmental problems be tackled. True, economic growth can make some environmental problems worse, but without growth environmental problems will be harder to address. So it is not useful to think of development and the environment as involving a tradeoff. The only sensible approach is to ensure—through better environmental stewardship—that future economic development is socially and environmentally sustainable.
As we have come to better understand the links between economic development and the environment, it has become broadly accepted that inappropriate economic policies have a high cost for the environment, that poverty and environmental problems are closely linked, that environmental values have to be incorporated in the prices that guide economic growth, and that regional and global actions are essential to deal with environmental problems that cross national borders.
Introduction
3.1--Land use and deforestation
3.2--Biodiversity and protected areas
3.3--Freshwater
3.4--Energy production and use
3.5--Energy efficiency, dependency, and emissions
3.6--Urbanization
3.7--Traffic and congestion
3.8--Air pollution
3.9--Government commitment

Economy
In the past 25 years, in the expanding global economy, the developing economies have played an increasingly important role. This trend has four characteristics:
Steady growth and structural transformation, led by low- and middle-income economies that have pursued successful adjustment policies.
Rapid integration of developing economies in the global economy, marked by expanding trade and capital flows.
Improved policy environments in developing economies, with better macroeconomic management and economic liberalization driving growth and integration.
Increasing disparities within the developing world, with some regions pulling rapidly ahead (such as East Asia) and others in danger of being marginalized (Sub-Saharan Africa).
The indicators presented in this section attempt to measure changes in the global economy and the differential impact of these changes on developing economies. They are mainly indicators that traditionally appear in the World Development Indicators, measuring outcomes in the structure and rates of change of output, trade, and aggregate demand and in macroeconomic performance, including central government budgets, money supply, prices, balance of payments, and external debt. Like other data in this book, the data in this section are subject to conceptual and practical measurement problems that limit their comparability and usefulness (box 4a).
Introduction
4.1--Growth of output
4.2--Structure of output
4.3--Agricultural production
4.4--Food crops
4.5--Key agricultural inputs
4.6--Structure of manufacturing
4.7--Growth of merchandise trade
4.8--Structure of merchandise exports
4.9--Structure of merchandise imports
4.10--Structure of service exports
4.11--Structure of service imports
4.12--Structure of demand
4.13--Growth of consumption and investment
4.14--Structure of consumption in PPP terms
4.15--Macroeconomic indicators
4.16--Central government finances
4.17--Central government revenues
4.18--Central government expenditures
4.19--Monetary indicators
4.20--Inflation
4.21--Balance of payments current account
4.22--Balance of payments capital and financial account
4.23--External debt
4.24--External debt management

States and markets
It is increasingly recognized that "governments need to do less in those areas where markets work or can be made to work reasonably well" (World Bank 1991b) and more in those areas—such as education, health, nutrition, and regulation—where markets alone cannot be relied upon. By unleashing competitive forces and enhancing international competitiveness, a healthy private sector can provide both growth and jobs.
Many developing country governments are shifting their priorities from preserving jobs in a stagnant public sector to creating jobs in a vibrant private sector. This shift implies a fundamental change in the role of government—from owner and operator to policymaker and regulator, working closely with the private sector to develop a competitive, outward-looking economy (World Bank 1995e). This section provides indicators that reflect these shifting roles.
Introduction
5.1--Credit, investment, and expenditure
5.2--Private capital flows
5.3--Stock markets
5.4--State-owned enterprises
5.5--Relative prices and exchange rates
5.6--Trade policies
5.7--Export competitiveness
5.8--Tax policies
5.9--Portfolio investment regulation and risk
5.10--Financial depth and efficiency
5.11--Power and communications
5.12--Transport infrastructure
5.13--Science and technology
5.14--The information age

Global links
The network of economic links binding nations has become stronger in the past four decades. World trade has grown faster than GDP. Foreign investment has increased rapidly. International financial markets have expanded enormously in their scale and in the diversity of their instruments. And new technologies have revolutionized international communications and altered long-standing patterns of production and employment. All a striking contrast to the first half of the century, when wars, autarky, and depression impeded the growth of trade and international finance.
In some ways the past four decades can be viewed as a return to the pre-1913 era—when goods, labor, and capital moved around the world relatively freely. But there also are striking differences. Compared with the reign of commodities before 1913, trade now has a higher share of manufactures and services, in part a reflection of the declining price of commodities relative to manufactures. Other differences between the current period of financial integration and that of the late 19th century are the greater global scope and depth of integration and the speed with which the market can now react.
Global economic integration—the widening and intensifying of links between the economies of industrial and developing countries—has accelerated rapidly. Underpinning the intensification of these links—which include trade, finance, investment, technology, and migration—are several structural factors. The progressive liberalization of trade policies negotiated during consecutive rounds of trade talks—culminating in the Uruguay Round—has lowered tariffs and stimulated trade. The integration of the world economy through trade has been reinforced by increases in private capital flows, particularly in the 1990s. And technological advances in transport and communications have lowered the cost of operating globally and provided developing countries with new opportunities to benefit from the growing world economy.
Introduction
6.1--Integration with the global economy
6.2--Direction of OECD trade
6.3--OECD trade with low- and middle-income economies
6.4--Uruguay Round tariff reductions
6.5--Commodity prices
6.6--Net financial flows from Development Assistance Committee countries
6.7--Aid flows from Development Assistance Committee countries
6.8--Financial terms of official development assistance commitments
6.9--Distribution of net aid by Development Assistance Committee countries
6.10--Aid dependency
6.11--Net concessional flows from multilateral institutions
6.12--Net resource flows from international financial institutions
6.13--Foreign labor and population in OECD countries

Boxes
1a-- Targeting development
4a-- The pitfalls of measuring national income
5a-- Private capital flows prove resilient

Figures
2a-- Regional population shares, 1980 and 2030
2.2a-- Composition of population by age and sex in low- and high-income economies, 1995 and 2025
2.2b-- Population growth in low- and middle-income economies, 1990–2035
2.2c-- Population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1990–2035
2.2d-- Population growth in Asia, 1990–2035
2.2e-- Population growth in the Middle East and North Africa, 1990–2035
2.2f-- Population growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, 1990–2035
2.2g-- Population growth in Europe and Central Asia, 1990–2035
2.14a-- Infant mortality, by region, 1970, 1980, and 1995

3a-- Global water use, by sector, 1900–2000
3b-- Energy use, by income group, 1994
3.1a-- Land use in low-income economies, 1980 and 1994
3.1b-- Land use in middle-income economies, 1980 and 1994
3.1c-- Land use in high-income economies, 1980 and 1994
3.2a-- Protected areas, globally and by income group, 1994
3.5a-- Carbon dioxide emissions per capita, by income group, 1980 and 1992
3.5b-- Carbon dioxide emissions, by income group, 1992
3.6a-- Urban population, by region, 1970–95
3.6b-- Urban population, by income group, 1980–95
3.7a-- Motor vehicle registration, 1930–90
3.7b-- Motor vehicle production, 1950–90
3.9a-- Global atmospheric concentration of chlorofluorocarbons, 1978–94

4.3a-- Food production, by region, 1980 and 1995
4.6a-- Five largest developing manufacturing economies, 1994
4.6b-- Shares of manufactured goods produced, by income group, 1994
4.7a-- Net barter terms of trade, 1980–93
4.8a-- Merchandise exports from developing economies, 1980–94
4.9a-- Merchandise imports of developing economies, 1980–95
4.10a-- World trade in goods and services, 1980–95
4.11a-- Services as a share of total trade, 1980–95
4.12a-- Structure of demand, 1995
4.13a-- Private consumption per capita, 1980–95
4.14a-- Expenditure on services in nominal and PPP terms as a share of total expenditure in selected economies
4.14b-- Expenditure on food in nominal and PPP terms as a share of total expenditure in selected economies
4.20a-- Range of annual inflation rates, by region, 1980–90
4.20b-- Range of annual inflation rates, by region, 1990–95
4.20c-- Average annual rates of inflation, by region, 1980–95

5a-- GNP per capita and stock market capitalization in emerging markets, 1995
5b-- Implementing the private sector development agenda
5.2a-- Net private capital flows to developing economies, by region, 1980–95
5.9a-- Country rating of top 10 developing economy recipients of private capital flows, 1996
5.11a-- GNP per capita and telephone density in developing economies, 1995
5.13a-- High-technology exports from the top 10 high-technology exporters among developing economies, 1995
5.14a-- The 10 developing economies with the most TV sets per capita, 1995
5.14b-- The 10 developing economies with the most personal computers per capita, 1995

6.3a-- Manufactures in high-income OECD country imports from low- and middle-income economies, 1970–95
6.5a-- Weighted index of primary commodity prices for low- and middle-income economies, 1970–95
6.7a-- Net ODA from DAC countries as a share of GNP, 1994
6.7b-- Net ODA from DAC countries, 1994
6.8a-- Share of grants in net bilateral ODA from DAC countries, 1960–95
6.9a-- Distribution of net bilateral ODA and official aid from the five largest donors, 1994
6.12a-- Net IBRD and IDA lending, 1970–95
6.13a-- Stocks of foreign population by nationality in selected OECD countries

Text tables
2a-- Population living on less than $1 a day in developing economies, 1987 and 1993
2b-- Estimated illiterate population aged 15 and above, 1980 and 1995
2.3a-- Unemployment and underemployment in three countries
2.5a-- Poverty gap in various regions, 1987 and 1993
2.6a-- Income shares of lowest and highest quintiles, 1960s–1990s
2.7a-- Public education spending per pupil, by level of schooling, 1985 and 1992
2.8a-- Social and private rates of return to investment in education, by level of schooling
2.13a-- Cost-effectiveness of public health interventions and essential clinical services in low-income economies, 1990
2.13b-- Prevalence of child malnutrition, 1985, 1990, and 1995

3.2a-- Countries with largest shares of protected areas
3.6a-- Urban agglomerations with populations of 10 million or more, 2015
3.9a-- Status of national environmental action plans

4a-- Average annual growth of world trade and GDP, 1950–95
4b-- The emerging giants of the developing world, 1995
4.14a-- Structure of consumption in PPP terms, by income group, 1993 4.14b-- Structure of consumption in nominal local currency terms, by income group, 1993

5.6a-- OECD imports covered by nontariff barriers before and after the Uruguay Round
5.7a-- Average annual growth of exports and export growth factors, 1983–94
5.7b-- Correlation of export growth factors with export growth, 1983–94

6a-- Global environment for developing economies, 1974–2006