Comparing The United Kingdom And Sierra Leone

In this essay, two countries, one developed and one developing, will be compared based on their economic growth and living standards, while also touching base upon the countries inflation rate, unemployment rate, and their current balance. The two countries chosen for comparison are the United Kingdom (developed) and Sierra Leone (developing). Based on previous knowledge, it is expected that the research conducted for this essay will show that the United Kingdom is further ahead in the world than Sierra Leone in respect to their economic growth and living standards as well as their current balance and unemployment rate. Before any of the above topics are discussed, it’s important to know a bit about the chosen countries background.

The United

GDP in the UK is at 2.5% and ranked number 122 in comparison to the rest of the world as of 2015, while the GDP of Sierra Leone is currently at -23.9% and is ranked number 224 in relation to the rest of the world as of 2015 (The World Factbook, 2016). Cleary seen from the GDP percentage of each country, the UK is doing better than Sierra Leone by a large margin. *Below this paragraph, a chart illustrating the GDP growth percentage of the UK and Sierra Leone through 2006-2016 can be found. Even though GDP is useful to see how much a country produces, GDP per capita offers a better way to compare the economic growth of two nations. GDP per capita is the measure of how much a country produces based on its population; it gives the average earning per person in a country. A high GDP per capita means that the economy is performing well and a low GDP per capita means the opposite. Using the current population of the United Kingdom, 64,088,222 people, and Sierra Leone, 5,879,098 people (The World Factbook, 2016), it is possible to establish the GDP per capita of both countries. The GDP per capita in the United Kingdom is $41,200 as of 2015 while GDP per capita in Sierra Leone is $1,600 as of 2015. Sierra Leone’s GDP per capita is almost 57 times less than that of the United Kingdom. This is substantial considering the population of the United Kingdom

In 2014 the inflation rate was 1.5%, which is not bad, but decreased by 1.4% to make an inflation rate of .1% in 2015 for the UK. This is an extremely good rate for customers in the UK. However, in Sierra Leone, the inflation rate rose between 2014 and 2015. It started off as 7.3% in 2014, but rose to 7.8% in 2015. Even though the inflation rate only rose by .5%, it still isn’t beneficial for the economy of Sierra Leone and is heading in the wrong direction. The third factor that measures a country's economic performance is the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is found by dividing the number of people unemployed by all people currently working in the labor force and is found as a percentage. In 2014, the United Kingdom, had an unemployment rate of 6.2%, but there was a drop in the unemployment rate for 2015. In 2015, the unemployment rate for a population of 64,088,222 people fell to 5.4% (The World Factbook, 2016). Unfortunately, there is no official number or ranking for Sierra Leone regarding the unemployment rate, but according to UNDP in Sierra Leone, the unemployment rate is 70% for a population of 5,879,098 people. In a previous paragraph it was shown that Sierra Leone’s population below the poverty line was 70.2% which just about equals their unemployment. This shows a direct correlation between working and being above the poverty line. To put this in perspective, about