Growth and development

Growth and development both mean change over time, but they are not the same.

• Growth is quantitative: a change in size or amount. It is value-neutral: it can be positive (an increase) or negative (a decrease).
• Development is a qualitative change: a change for the better. It is always value-positive.

Development cannot happen without some growth, but growth does not always bring development. If a city doubles in population, but its housing, water supply, roads and other services do not improve, it has grown but not developed. Development happens only when the quality of life improves.

Think of yourself: if you grow from 5 feet 6 inches to 5 feet 10, that is growth. If your communication skills improve, or you top your class, that is development. In the same way, being told only that a town's population rose from 1 lakh to 1.5 lakh says nothing about development: we would need to know whether its health, schooling and roads got better.

Growth can also be negative. After the 2004 tsunami, the city of Banda Aceh in Indonesia lost a large part of its buildings and people: a clear case of negative growth.