We chose the county Huerfano because during our extensive research about the areas in need of the most assistance in Colorado, it was initially amongst the neediest. However, the need for reform in Huerfano became much more clear when we looked into the statistics within the categories of teen pregnancy, unemployment, college degrees, literacy, and per capita income. Huerfano has a significant correlation between all of the aforementioned areas and the poverty in the area.
For example, Huerefano boasts a teen pregnancy rate of 41.7%, an unemployment rate of 10%, an illiteracy rate of 15%, and only has 28% of its inhabitants with a college degree. (These statistics can be found within a chart and graphs as well, compared to that of other counties.)
There are a series of categories which are essential in determining the necessity of development in a community. Communications, such as access to the internet and good phone systems are a very vital way to determine the level of economic development. Also literacy rates and infant mortality rates are important indicators. If a community’s literacy rate is low and their infant mortality rate is high, then this is a red flag to academics who study development within populations that an area needs help. These categories are all important parts of determine the level of development in a country.
While some might assume that since a county is in great need of development that they boast troubling statistics in ALL categories, this assumption would be false. The United States in its entirety is ranked in the mid 20’s in the world in infant mortality rates, which is due to the great divide in the country between those who are very poor and don't have access to the best pre-natal health care, and those who can afford to be regularly seen by their prenatal doctor. Having mentioned this divide in the country, it is important to note that just because the country has a certain rating based on its statistics, that Huerfanos rate had the possibility of being much different. In fact, it was much different. But not in the way one might expect when looking at the statistics for Huerfanos development. It’s infant mortality rate came in at a whopping 0%, with only 54 births in the calendar year of 2015.
We as a group feel that the most important factor in determining the the necessity of development in today’s modern society within a very well developed country is the per capita income. While this alone is not an indicator of poor development, the way the per capita income is distributed does indicate low development in cases where the PCI is not profoundly low. While the other indicators of reform are often present in underdeveloped countries, we feel that low PCI directly correlates to poverty in Huerfano, and further accentuates the need for development reform in the county. Huerefano boasts a PCI of $23,467. While we are unable to directly prove that the entirety of Huerefano is in poverty, it does become more clear that there is a great divide in the prosperity of Huerefano when you look at the average annual salaries of men and women. Whichever statistic you choose to look at, both are vastly higher than the PCI, indicating that there is an incredibly large amount of unemployed population who are living in poverty within city limits.
A glaring red flag in Huerfano is that women are clearly undervalued. This is a clear sign of an undeveloped society, with a wage gap of around $12,000 on average. As previously discussed in class, gender inequality is both a barrier to development as well as a social condition that hampers development. It is not something to be taken lightly, especially in the face of the statistics in Huerefano.
Male salaries are at an average of $50,918 annually, while female salaries sit at an average of $38,528. Not only is the wage gap an issue, but when compared to the PCI, we are able to clearly infer poverty in Huerefano because the wealth distribution is so unequal.
We also researched the employment in Huerfano. While we made a graph on the unemployment in this county (please see graph below), we wanted to look into those who are in fact employed in the area. Having discussed primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors, we looked further into these sectors and found the following: 6.2% of people work in the primary sector, 39.2% work in the secondary, and 54.8 work in the tertiary.
One of the most popular majors in the county is land use planning, management, and development. This shows that most people in the county are gearing up to enter the workforce to manage the primary sector, showing that there are already a great amount of people actually working in the primary sector, and now people are seeking to manage this work. Compared to other counties in the area that we deemed to be deserving of help, Huerefano fell relatively in the middle with their percentages on this portion of the chart. It really was important for there to be a balance within
Based on all of the above factors, we have determined that Huerefano is in the deepest need of help. Huerefano is at a stage in development where help is most urgent, because they are relatively developed, just are behind in social practices and some economic areas. The interesting thing in discussing which areas in a country like the United States needs help developing is that the country as a whole is relatively developed. There is running water and a road or a sewage system amongst other staples of basic infrastructure almost everywhere you turn. However, there is a great divide in the country and while some places are completely urbanized and developed, otherwise have not experienced the same flourishing. We have determined that Huerefano requires the most help due to the aforementioned issues.
The Chinese government wanted to foster development through urbanization, so they constructed massive urban areas. But currently, many of these huge blocks of urbanized space are completely uninhabited. http://www.dw.com/en/what-has-become-of-chinas-ghost-cities/a-36525007
Per capita GDP of Italy in 2008 in thousands of Euros
Map source: http://geocurrents.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Italy-Per-Capita-GDP-by-Region-Map.png
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