Standard of Living and Population Density

A person's standard of living tells you how well off they are. We can measure their standard of living by looking at
  • Their average income
  • The average number of calories eaten per person
  • The number of people per doctor
  • The percentage of people who are able to read and write
  • The average life expectancy
  • The infant mortality rate
These factors are known as standard of living indicators.

Countries that have a high standard of living are mainly found in the northern part of the world, and are called developed countries. Canada, France and Japan are examples of developed countries. This part of the world is also known as the "North".

Countries that have a low standard of living are mainly found in the southern part of the world and are called developing countries. Bolivia, Chad and Afghanistan are examples of developing countries. This part of the world is also known as the "South".
The developing and developed world

The graph below shows that women in the developed world have the longest life expectancy, and men in the developing world the shortest. Life expectancy

There is even greater differences when you look at individual countries.
Canada and Gambia life expectancy

Population Density

The population density of a country is how crowded it is. You can work out the population density of an area by dividing the number of people living there by the area of the land (in square kilometres).

For example, in 1991 there were 22,522 people living in the Shetland Isles on 1,468 sq km. 22,522 divided by 1,468 gives a population density of 15.34, that is just over 15 people per square kilometre.

Compare this with Hong Kong which in 1991 had 5,851,000 people living on 1,040 sq km (less area than Shetland), which equals over 5625 people per sq km!