Economically Advanced Economies

The United States of America, Japan and Western Europe are often seen as being the major players when discussing economically advanced economies, or MEDCs. These economies were built during the Industrial Revolution and have dominated the markets ever since. This has lead to somewhat of a north/south divide, with the bulk of the MEDCs being in the Northern Hemisphere (other than Australia and New Zealand, whose economies were initially built by the European market but have maintained a strong position due to having large amounts of natural resources).

There are a number of indicators that geographers use to assess the state of a country’s economy. There are a series of economic and non-economic factors that are often linked. Literacy rates directly link to the skills of the workforce, whilst nations with poor health care will lose members of society to disease and so will have far lower productivity rates.

Many economically advanced economies have a population that is proportionally older, as birth rates have fallen below 2.1 children per mother. This means that populations may start to shrink in the future and there are more retired people than there are people in the workforce. Migration tends to be from emerging economies into economically advanced economies. Some see this as a solution to the shrinking workforce, whilst others see the influx of migrant workers as being a drain on the economy as they send money home to their families, and some may be able to claim assistance from the local government. These economically advanced economies may rely on emerging economies to provide raw materials and primary sector industries as their own economies have become dominated by secondary and tertiary industries.