Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
This Data Table is a valuable resource, and should be
consulted throughout your reading. Like all else in this
topic, this table is subject to continuous revision and
modifi cation. Compared to previous editions, we have
deleted some indices, elaborated others, and introduced
new ones. For example, in a world with ever-slower pop-
ulation growth, the so-called Doubling Time index—the
number of years it will take for a population to double in
size based on its current rate of natural increase—has
lost most of its utility. On the other hand, when it comes
to Life Expectancy and Literacy , general averages con-
ceal signifi cant differences between male and female
rates, which in turn refl ect conditions in individual coun-
tries, so we report these by gender. Also in this edition,
we continue to use the Corruption Index , not available
for all countries but an important refl ection of a global
problem. The Big Mac Price index, a measure intro-
duced by the journal The Economist, tells you much
more than what a hamburger with all the trimmings
would cost in real dollars in various countries of the
world—it also refl ects whether those countries' curren-
cies are overvalued or undervalued. And the fi nal col-
umn, in which we formerly used to reported the
per-capita GNP (Gross National Product), now reveals
the GNI , that is, the Gross National Income per person
and what this would buy in each country. In the language
of economic geographers, this is called the GNI-PPP,
the per-capita Gross National Income in terms of its
Purchasing Power Parity.
Indexes that may not be immediately obvious to you
include Arithmetic Population Density , the number of
people per square kilometer in each country; Physiologic
Population Density , the number of people per square
kilometer of agriculturally productive land; Birth and
Death Rates per thousand in the population, resulting in
the national population's rate of Natural Increase ; a pop-
ulation's Infant Mortality , the number of deaths per
thousand in the fi rst year of life, thus largely refl ecting the
number of deaths at birth; Child Mortality , the deaths
per thousand of children in their fi rst fi ve years; the Cor-
ruption Index , based on Transparency International data
in which 10.0 is perfect and 0.1 is the worst; the Big Mac
Price index, which tells you why Argentina in 2011 was
the best place to buy a hamburger in U.S. dollars; and the
Per Capita GNI ($U.S.) , the GNI-PPP index referred
to above, which tells you how spendable income varies
around the globe. For additional details on sources and
data, please consult the Data Sources section of the Preface.
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