Comparative+Social+Statistics

Comparative Social Statistics "What should a government do to help the people?" **Introductory Questionnaire:** //Colombia, United States, Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, _ (your choice)// __**I. According to your perception, rank the above countries in terms of the wellbeing of their citizens (best to worst).**__ __**II.** **What social or economic statistics do you think should be used to determine whether one country’s people are “better off” than those of another?** //(think of at least 5)//__ __**III.** **Do you know of any organizations that research, collect, and analyze such statistics?**__


 * From the list below, choose what you believe are the 5 most important socio-economic indicators** (poverty rate and HDI required, and you may choose more if you wish). **Then, for each country, research their figures and create tables in your notebooks** **which clearly show their statistics and comparative ranking.**

__**IV.**__ **Basic Terms:**

__**1.**__ **Human Development Index __(HDI)__ OBLIGATORY__** A tool developed by the United Nations to measure and rank countries’ levels of social and economic development based on four criteria: 1. Life expectancy at birth 2. Average years of schooling, 3. Expected years of schooling 4. Gross national income per capita. [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Inde]

2. **__Poverty Rates__ (Poverty (under $2), and “extreme poverty” ( under $1.25)) __OBLIGATORY__**
"Poverty" defined as an economic condition of lacking both money and basic necessities needed to successfully live, such as food, water, education, healthcare, and shelter. [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_povert]

__**3. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Per Capita**__
The total market value of all final goods and services produced in a country in a given year (equal to total consumer, investment and government spending, plus the value of exports, minus the value of imports), divided by the number of people in the country. [|Per Capita GDP World Map] (adjusted for PPP, 2009) [|PPP World Map 2003]

4. ** __Under-five mortality rate (U5MR)__ ** Probability of dying between birth and exactly five years of age expressed per 1,000 live births. []

5. __** Life expectancy at birth **__ The number of years newborn children would live if subject to the mortality risks prevailing for the country []

6. __** Adult literacy rate **__ Percentage of persons aged 15 and over who can read and write. []

The Gini coefficient is a measure of the inequality of a distribution, a value of 0 expressing total equality and a value of 1 maximal inequality. It is commonly used as a measure of inequality of income or wealth.


 * 1) 1. [|GINI Coefficient World Map]

__**8. Top 100 Human Rights Offenders**__
**OTHER INDICATORS:** 9. **(U5MR)****Reduction since 1990 (%)** Percentage reduction in the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) from 1990 to 2002. The United Nations Millennium Declaration in 2000 established a goal of a two-thirds (67%) reduction in U5MR from 1990 to 2015. Hence this indicator provides a current assessment of progress towards this goal.

Purchasing power parity (PPP) allows you to compare the standard of living between countries by taking into account the impact of their exchange rates.
 * 10.** **Purchasing Power Parity (PPP)**

11. ** GNI per capita ** Gross national income (GNI) is the sum of value added by all resident producers plus any product taxes (less subsidies) not included in the valuation of output plus net receipts of primary income (compensation of employees and property income) from abroad. GNI per capita is gross national income divided by mid-year population. GNI per capita in US dollars is converted using the World Bank Atlas method.

12. ** Net primary school enrollment/attendance ** Derived from net primary school enrolment rates as reported by UNESCO/UIS (UNESCO Institute of Statistics) and from national household survey reports of attendance at primary school.

13. ** Income share ** Percentage of income received by the 20 per cent of households with the highest income and by the 40 per cent of households with the lowest income.

14. ** Infant mortality rate (IMR) ** Probability of dying between birth and exactly one year of age expressed per 1,000 live births.