Characteristics of Developing Countries
Developing countries are those which have lower PCI compared to developed countries like USA, UK, Japan, etc. In the developing countries, the process of economic development has started but not completed. These countries are going to be developed. These countries are also known as underdeveloped countries (UDCs) or least developed countries or third world. The developing countries differ from each other but some characteristic or features are common, which are as follows:
1. Low Per Capita Income:
The first important feature of the developing countries is low per capita income. For example, per capita income of Nepal is only US $ 1097, which is very low compared to developed countries like USA, Canada, Norway, Japan and others.
2. Mass Poverty:
Mass poverty is one of the major features of all the developing countries. In these countries, people are not able to satisfy even the basic needs. A large portion of population in these countries lives below the poverty line. For example, 16.67% of population in Nepal lives under the poverty line.
3. Rapid Population Growth:
Rapid population growth is a common characteristic of most of the developing countries. Their population has been rising at rates varying between 1 and 3 % per year for the past few decades. For example, population growth rate of developing countries like Nepal is 1.35%.
4. Excessive Dependence on Agriculture:
In the developing countries, majority of population lives in the rural areas. Its only one source of income and employment is agriculture. For example, in the developing countries like Nepal, more than 50% of population is engaged in agriculture sector.
5. Underutilization of Natural Resources:
Most of the developing countries are rich in natural resources like minerals, water and forest. For example, Nepal is very rich in water resources. It can produce 83,000 MW hydroelectricity if it utilizes all water resources fully but current production of hydro-electricity is around 1233 MW which is about 1.5% of its total potentiality.
6. Unemployment and Under Employment:
Wide spread unemployment and under-employment are the important feature of the developing countries. High dependency on agriculture sector, low industrial development, lack of proper utilization of natural resources, lack of man power planning, etc. have created unemployment and under employment in the developing countries like Nepal.
7. Technological Backwardness:
The developing countries are also backward in state in technology. The technological backwardness is reflected firstly in high average cost of production despite low wages, secondly, in high labour output and capital output ratios and the fall in input productivity. The main reasons for technological backwardness are illiteracy, lack of skilled manpower, and deficiency of capital required to install new technology.
8. Dualistic Economy:
Dualistic economy refers to the economy where there exists technically primitive sectors and technically advanced sectors. For example, in developing countries like Nepal, there are technically primitive sectors in the rural areas whereas there are technically advanced sectors in the urban areas.in the rural areas, people use primitive farming technique and there are also small cottage industries. But in the urban areas, there are large modern industries, which use advanced technology.
9. Dependence on Primary Exports:
The developing countries are oriented towards the production and export of primary product. There are extremely lacking the development of secondary and tertiary sectors. So, these countries export primary product of lower value and import finished goods of higher value. As a result, the developing countries face the problem of deficit in foreign trade.
10. Inadequate Social Services:
In the developing countries, social services like education, health, safe drinking water, sanitation etc. are not adequately provided to the people. The social services and their states have great linkage with the living standard of people. In the developing countries, people lack most of these facilities which leads to low living standard of people.