Posted: November 16th, 2022

Does the region of a country dictate its GNP per capita?

Poverty

Date

The report focuses on two significant issues: Does the region of a country dictate its GNP per capita? Is the GNP per capita an indicator of the poverty level of a person living in a country? These issues are explained based on the graphs provided.
Graphs of GNP per capita
The graphs are plotted based on the regions.

Figure 1: GNP per capita: Eastern Europe

Figure 2: GDP per capita: South America and Mexico

Figure 3: GDP per capita: Western Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand

Figure 4: GNP per capita: Middle East

Figure 5: GNP per capita: Asia

Figure 6: GNP per capita: Africa
The average GNP per capita per region is presented in the tabular form below.
Regions Average GNP per capita (in U.S dollars)
Eastern Europe 1931.3333
South America and Mexico 1672.5
Western Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand 18706
Middle East 7392
Asia 2495.2308
Africa 852.59259

Region and GNP per capita
The Eastern Europe has an average GNP per capita of $U.S 1931.3333. The leading country in the region is Czechoslovakia with a GNP per capita of $U.S 2980, and the country with the least GNP per capita is Albania, $U.S 600. Most countries have values above $U.S 1500. The gap between the country with the highest GNP per capita and the country with the lowest is $U.S 2380. The GNP per capita of Former_E._Germany and Yugoslavia are not provided in the data, and they are excluded in the computation of average value. There is disparity witnessed in GNP per capita of the region as supported by the research of Karasavvoglou (2011, p.145).
The group 2 countries, South America and Mexico have an average GNP per capita of $U.S 1672.5. Brazil is leading with a GNP per capita of $U.S 2680 and Guyana has the least GNP per capita of $U.S 330. Most countries GNP per capita are distributed between $U.S 1000 and $U.S 2500 with three countries (Brazil, Uruguay, and Venezuela) showing values above $U.S 2500. And three countries (Bolivia, Ecuador, and Guyana) presenting values lower than $U.S 1000. In these countries the distribution of the GNP per capita seems closely distributed; and this is in line with the literature (Fukuyama 2008, p.72). Countries in group 3 (Western Europe, North America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand) have an average GNP per capita of $U.S 18706. The leading country in GNP per capita is Switzerland ($U.S 34064). The country with the least GNP per capita is Greece ($U.S 5990). In this region, many countries have GNP per capita of $U.S 16000. In this region, countries have strong economic development (Strauss 2016, p.80).
In Middle East GNP per capita are high in most countries. The average value of GNP per capita is $U.S 7392. But it is unevenly distributed. The United Arab Emirates is the leading country, $U.S 19860. The country with the least value is Jordan, $U.S 1240. The oil in the region is escalating the GNP per capita and it does not translate to the good standard of living (Wilson 2013, p.29). Asia and Africa have $U.S 2495.2308 and $U.S 852.59259 GNP per capita, respectively. In Asia, Hong Kong is leading with a value of $U.S 14210. The country with the least GNP per capita is Afghanistan, $U.S 168. Most countries of Asia have registered values of less than $U.S 500. Most of the African countries are experiencing GNP per capita of less than $U.S 1000. Libya is leading with $U.S 5310 while Mozambique has the least, $U.S 80. Most countries in Africa are poor as depicted by low GNP per capita (Johnson & Turner 2010, p.73).
Poverty and GNP per capita
Traditionally, poverty and standard of living were measured by economic indicators such as GNP per capita. However, such measures are incomplete because neither do they reveal the wealth distribution among the population of a country, nor indicate the poverty level of a particular country (Fagan & Munck 2009, p.227). For instance, a country may have a high value of GNP per capita but at the same time, the gap existing between the rich and the poor may be as well widening (Fagan & Munck 2009, p.227). Therefore, to determine the standard of living of a population within a country, other factors must be brought into play.
From the excel table, using GNP per capita, it may be reasoned out that Switzerland ($U.S 34, 064 GNP per capita) is richer than Singapore ($U.S 11,160 GNP per capita). But according to Gregson (2017), in ranking countries as per richness or poverty, the GNP per capita data has to be adjusted for PPP (purchasing power parity). In the ranking of richest and poorest countries with the data of 2016, Singapore ranked number and Switzerland ranked number 11 (Gregson, 2017). Therefore, GNP-PPP gives a better comparison of the living standard than since the inflation rates and cost of living are taken into consideration than GNP per capita which only takes into account the exchange rates and as a result may give misleading results in real differences in income.
To sum up, various regions are associated with certain natural endowments that impact the GNP per capita. On the other hand, poverty or standard of living of a people living in a country is not necessarily determined by the GNP per capita.

Bibliography
Fagan, G. H., & Munck, R. (2009). Globalization and security: an encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif, Praeger Security International.
Fukuyama, F. ed., 2008. Falling behind: explaining the development gap between Latin America and the United States. Oxford University Press.
Gregson, J. 2017. The World’s Richest and Poorest Countries. Global Finance. Retrieved from https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/worlds-richest-and-poorest-countries
Johnson, D. and Turner, C., 2010. International Business: Themes and issues in the modern global economy. Routledge.
Karasavvoglou, A.G. ed., 2011. The economies of the Balkan and Eastern Europe countries in the changed world. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Strauss, J., 2016. E-marketing. Routledge.
Wilson, R., 2013. Economic development in the Middle East. Routledge.

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