Measuring the Development Progress of Least Developed Countries: In the Context of World Development

Figures & data

Table 1. Ethiopia’s annual growth rates of GNI per capita based on constant local currency, 2010–2019 (World Bank 2021b).

Year	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	Sample mean	Sample standard deviation
Annual growth rate of GNI per capita			5.61%	7.50%	7.16%	7.25%	6.58%	6.40%	4.18%	5.32%	6.24%	1.14%

Figure 1. Three sections in $\overline{X}-S$ charts for evaluating the performance of GNI per capita growth (a) $\overline{X}$ chart (b) S chart.

Table 2. List of 217 economies (including 47 LDCs) in the World Bank datasets.

No.	Economy	LDC group	No.	Economy	LDC group	No.	Economy	LDC group	No.	Economy	LDC group
1	Afghanistan	2	56	Dominica		111	Lebanon		166	Sao Tome and Principe	3
2	Albania		57	Dominican Republic		112	Lesotho	1	167	Saudi Arabia
3	Algeria		58	Ecuador		113	Liberia	1	168	Senegal	1
4	American Samoa		59	Egypt, Arab Rep.		114	Libya		169	Serbia
5	Andorra		60	El Salvador		115	Liechtenstein		170	Seychelles
6	Angola	1	61	Equatorial Guinea		116	Lithuania		171	Sierra Leone	1
7	Antigua and Barbuda		62	Eritrea	1	117	Luxembourg		172	Singapore
8	Argentina		63	Estonia		118	Macao SAR, China		173	Sint Maarten (Dutch part)
9	Armenia		64	Eswatini		119	Madagascar	1	174	Slovak Republic
10	Aruba		65	Ethiopia	1	120	Malawi	1	175	Slovenia
11	Australia		66	Faroe Islands		121	Malaysia		176	Solomon Islands	3
12	Austria		67	Fiji		122	Maldives		177	Somalia	1
13	Azerbaijan		68	Finland		123	Mali	1	178	South Africa
14	Bahamas, The		69	France		124	Malta		179	South Sudan	1
15	Bahrain		70	French Polynesia		125	Marshall Islands		180	Spain
16	Bangladesh	2	71	Gabon		126	Mauritania	1	181	Sri Lanka
17	Barbados		72	Gambia, The	1	127	Mauritius		182	St. Kitts and Nevis
18	Belarus		73	Georgia		128	Mexico		183	St. Lucia
19	Belgium		74	Germany		129	Micronesia, Fed. Sts.		184	St. Martin (French part)
20	Belize		75	Ghana		130	Moldova		185	St. Vincent and the Grenadines
21	Benin	1	76	Gibraltar		131	Monaco		186	Sudan	1
22	Bermuda		77	Greece		132	Mongolia		187	Suriname
23	Bhutan	2	78	Greenland		133	Montenegro		188	Sweden
24	Bolivia		79	Grenada		134	Morocco		189	Switzerland
25	Bosnia and Herzegovina		80	Guam		135	Mozambique	1	190	Syrian Arab Republic
26	Botswana		81	Guatemala		136	Myanmar	2	191	Tajikistan
27	Brazil		82	Guinea	1	137	Namibia		192	Tanzania	1
28	British Virgin Islands		83	Guinea-Bissau	1	138	Nauru		193	Thailand
29	Brunei Darussalam		84	Guyana		139	Nepal	2	194	Timor-Leste	3
30	Bulgaria		85	Haiti	1	140	Netherlands		195	Togo	1
31	Burkina Faso	1	86	Honduras		141	New Caledonia		196	Tonga
32	Burundi	1	87	Hong Kong SAR, China		142	New Zealand		197	Trinidad and Tobago
33	Cabo Verde		88	Hungary		143	Nicaragua		198	Tunisia
34	Cambodia	2	89	Iceland		144	Niger	1	199	Turkey
35	Cameroon		90	India		145	Nigeria		200	Turkmenistan
36	Canada		91	Indonesia		146	Northern Mariana Islands		201	Turks and Caicos Islands
37	Cayman Islands		92	Iran, Islamic Rep.		147	North Macedonia		202	Tuvalu	3
38	Central African Republic	1	93	Iraq		148	Norway		203	Uganda	1
39	Chad	1	94	Ireland		149	Oman		204	Ukraine
40	Channel Islands		95	Isle of Man		150	Pakistan		205	United Arab Emirates
41	Chile		96	Israel		151	Palau		206	United Kingdom
42	China		97	Italy		152	Panama		207	United States
43	Colombia		98	Jamaica		153	Papua New Guinea		208	Uruguay
44	Comoros	3	99	Japan		154	Paraguay		209	Uzbekistan
45	Congo, Dem. Rep.	1	100	Jordan		155	Peru		210	Vanuatu	3
46	Congo, Rep.		101	Kazakhstan		156	Philippines		211	Venezuela, RB
47	Costa Rica		102	Kenya		157	Poland		212	Vietnam
48	Cote d'Ivoire		103	Kiribati	3	158	Portugal		213	Virgin Islands (U.S.)
49	Croatia		104	Korea, Dem. People’s Rep.		159	Puerto Rico		214	West Bank and Gaza
50	Cuba		105	Korea, Rep.		160	Qatar		215	Yemen, Rep.	2
51	Curacao		106	Kosovo		161	Romania		216	Zambia	1
52	Cyprus		107	Kuwait		162	Russian Federation		217	Zimbabwe
53	Czech Republic		108	Kyrgyz Republic		163	Rwanda	1
54	Denmark		109	Lao PDR	2	164	Samoa
55	Djibouti	1	110	Latvia		165	San Marino

LDC group: 1 = African LDCs and Haiti, 2 = Asian LDCs, 3 = Island LDCs.

Figure 2. $\overline{X}-S$ charts: The annual growth rate of GNI per capita, 2010–2019.

Figure 3. $\overline{X}-S$ charts: The annual increase in life expectancy at birth, 2010–2019.

Figure 4. $\overline{X}-S$ charts: The annual increase in the gross enrollment ratio of tertiary education, 2010–2019.

Table 3. Summary of Figure 2–Figure 4: Development progress of LDCs in three indicators, 2010–2019.

No.	LDC group	LDC	GNI per capita		Life expectancy		Tertiary education
			G	V	G	V	G	V
1	2	Afghanistan			□	□
6	1	Angola	□	□	●	□
16	2	Bangladesh	□	□	□	▴	□	□
21	1	Benin	□	□	□	▴	□	□
23	2	Bhutan	□	□	□	▴	□	□
31	1	Burkina Faso	□	□	●	□	□	▴
32	1	Burundi	□	□	●	□	□	□
34	2	Cambodia	□	▴	□	□	□	□
38	1	Central African Republic	▴	●	●	□	□	□
39	1	Chad	□	□	□	□	□	□
44	3	Comoros	□	□	□	□	□	□
45	1	Congo, Dem. Rep.	□	□	□	□	□	□
55	1	Djibouti	□	□	●	□	□	□
62	1	Eritrea	□	□	□	□	□	□
65	1	Ethiopia	●	□	●	□	□	□
72	1	Gambia, The	□	□	□	▴	□	□
82	1	Guinea	□	□	●	▴	□	□
83	1	Guinea-Bissau	□	□	□	□
85	1	Haiti	□	□	□	▴
103	3	Kiribati	□	●	□	▴
109	2	Lao PDR	□	□	□	□	□	□
112	1	Lesotho	□	□	●	□	□	□
113	1	Liberia	□	□	●	□
119	1	Madagascar	□	□	□	▴	□	▴
120	1	Malawi	□	□	●	●
123	1	Mali	□	□	□	▴	□	□
126	1	Mauritania	□	□	□	▴	□	▴
135	1	Mozambique	□	□	●	□	□	▴
136	2	Myanmar	□	□	□	□
139	2	Nepal	□	□	□	▴	□	□
144	1	Niger	□	□	●	□	□	▴
163	1	Rwanda	□	□	●	□	□	▴
166	3	Sao Tome and Principe			□	□	□	□
168	1	Senegal	□	□	□	□	□	□
171	1	Sierra Leone	□	●	●	□
176	3	Solomon Islands			□	▴
177	1	Somalia			□	▴
179	1	South Sudan	□	●	□	□
186	1	Sudan	□	●	□	□	□	□
192	1	Tanzania	□	□	●	□
194	3	Timor-Leste	▴	●	□	▴
195	1	Togo	□	□	□	□	□	□
202	3	Tuvalu
203	1	Uganda	□	□	●	□	□	□
210	3	Vanuatu	□	□	□	▴
215	2	Yemen, Rep.			□	□	□	□
216	1	Zambia			●	●

G (degree of growth) and V (variation in growth): ● High, □ Normal, ▴ Low; Gray cells: no data.

Note: Shading is highlight “no data”.

Table 4. Three growth categories of three development indicators (based on Figure 2–Figure 4), 2010–2019.

Economy	GNI per capita				Life expectancy at birth				Gross enrollment ratio of tertiary education
	High growth	Normal growth	Low growth	No data	High growth	Normal growth	Low growth	No data	High growth	Normal growth	Low growth	No data
LDCs (47)	1 (2.1%)	37 (78.7%)	2 (4.3%)	7 (14.9%)	17 (36.2%)	29 (61.7%)	0 (0.0%)	1 (2.1%)	0 (0.0%)	30 (63.8%)	0 (0.0%)	17 (36.2%)
Other economies (170)	3 (1.8%)	114 (67.1%)	5 (2.9%)	48 (28.2%)	9 (5.3%)	132 (77.6%)	14 (8.2%)	15 (8.8%)	4 (2.4%)	107 (62.9%)	4 (2.4%)	55 (32.4%)
All economies (217)	4 (1.8%)	151 (69.6%)	7 (3.2%)	55 (25.3%)	26 (12.0%)	161 (74.2%)	14 (6.5%)	16 (7.4%)	4 (1.8%)	137 (63.1%)	4 (1.8%)	72 (33.2%)

Numbers in a cell: the number of economies (the percentage of economies).

Table 5. Three variation categories of three development indicators (based on Figure 2–Figure 4), 2010–2019.

Economy	Annual growth rate of GNI per capita				Annual increase in life expectancy at birth				Annual increase in gross enrollment ratio of tertiary education
	High variation	Normal variation	Low variation	No data	High variation	Normal variation	Low variation	No data	High variation	Normal variation	Low variation	No data
LDCs (47)	6 (12.8%)	33 (70.2%)	1 (2.1%)	7 (14.9%)	2 (4.3%)	29 (61.7%)	15 (31.9%)	1 (2.1%)	0 (0.0%)	24 (51.1%)	6 (12.8%)	17 (36.2%)
Other economies (170)	5 (2.9%)	104 (61.2%)	13 (7.6%)	48 (28.2%)	15 (8.8%)	62 (36.5%)	78 (45.9%)	15 (8.8%)	7 (4.1%)	105 (61.8%)	3 (1.8%)	55 (32.4%)
All economies (217)	11 (5.1%)	137 (63.1%)	14 (6.5%)	55 (25.3%)	17 (7.8%)	91 (41.9%)	93 (42.9%)	16 (7.4%)	7 (3.2%)	129 (59.4%)	9 (4.1%)	72 (33.2%)

Numbers in a cell: the number of economies (the percentage of economies).

Figure 5. Six LDCs with exceptionally high variations in GNI per capita growth, 2010–2019.

World Bank. 2021b. GNI Per Capita Growth (annual %) (Version March 19, 2021).

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