Assess the ways in which development can be measured.

Development can be explained as how economically, socially, culturally or technologically advanced a country is. Originally, the Brandt line was a default method of defining which countries were most or least developed. This line divided the world into a rich global North and a poor global South. However, this method of categorisation is now heavily criticised as being over simplistic and inaccurate, for example, several countries in the global South such as India and China are in periods of rapid economic growth.The Human Development Index is another key method used to measure development. Created by the United Nations, this method is more complex and takes into account several different factors such as education and health to assess a country's level of development. It could, however, be argued that HDI focuses heavily on economic and social factors, neglecting political and cultural aspects of development.