World Sociology

Social Development

Social development, as the name suggests, looks at the societal aspects of a country in order to evaluate the extent to which it is ‘developed’. This can be done by examining factors such as:

  • Education – number of children receiving an education (is there a gender difference?) and literacy levels.

  • Health – including child mortality rates, life expectancy, number of doctors and nurses in relation to population.

  • Democracy – is there a fair and equal voting system for the election of leaders? Are there any restrictions on who is allowed to vote?

  • Gender equality – in all aspects of society including the workplace

Students could investigate the social development of the country they examined in the introduction, before bringing this information together as a class. As a class the students could work to come to an agreement about the social development of all of the different countries – aiming to place them into a hierarchy.


A useful starting point for quantitative data is the World Bank, from which students could try and find more qualitative, explanatory material if needed.


Discover More Social Development, World Development Indicators

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