Powerpoint Templates Types of Economic Activities.

Powerpoint Templates

Types of Economic Activities

Economic development refers to how advanced an economy is. Economists and geographers have found that a nation’s level of economic development is often closely tied to the types of economic activities its people engage in.

Economic Development

Primary Economic Activities

• The most basic, or primaryprimary, economic activities in all societies involve the production of foods and the extraction of resources.

What are some examples of economic activities that would be considered

primary?

Do you think a country would be considered more or less developed if it had a HIGH level of primary

economic activities? Explain

your answer.

Secondary Economic Activities

The manufacture and production of goods (like making textiles and furniture) is considered the secondary level of economic activity. Secondary economic activities add value to raw materials by processing them or by changing their form.

Examples of secondary

economic activities would be a log being cut into

wooden planks and then made into furniture or iron ore changed into

steel and then made into rail road

tracks.

What is another example of a secondary

economic activity?

Tertiary economic activities deal with services. Services

include occupations such as a teacher, nurse, doctor, accountant,

retailer, truck driver or musician.

In the US, more than 80% of the labor force are tertiary workers.

They perform some form of service rather than

producing a good.

Is it important that a country has an equal

percentage of people

participating in each level of

economic activity?

Why or why not?

Quaternary activities consist of

those involving information

processing and management.

Occupations in this category would

include computer programmers or

the general manager of a

company.

What countries do you think would have a high level of people employed at the quaternary economic level?

What are some countries that would have low percentages of people employed at the quaternary level?

Putting it all together

What would be an example of a quaternary activity in the pencil example above?

Let’s see what you know….

Use your fingers to show whether the image is primary, secondary, tertiary or

quaternary.

Primary Secondary Tertiary Quaternary

What’s the connection between a country’s level of development

and the types of economic activities taking place?

In a “less developed” country…

• Most people are engaged in primary economic activities, such as agriculture or mining.

• Many of the people engage in subsistence farming or work for large-scale, commercial farming operations.

What is subsistence

farming?

Why would being engaged in primary economic

activities be an indicator of a less developed country?

In a “newly industrialized country”…

• Many of the people are engaged in secondary economic activities, such as manufacturing products or automobiles to be exported.

• Some newly industrialized countries include China and Thailand.

What could be a cause of so many manufacturing businesses taking place in newly industrialized

countries?

In a “more developed country”…

• The majority of workers are engaged in tertiary or quaternary activities.

• Most people provide services or process information.

• The US and France are examples of more developed countries.

Where would a more developed country (with the majority of workers performing tertiary and quaternary

activities) fall on the Human Development Index? Explain your answer.

Chapter Study Cards• Human Development Index –

– Demographic Data• • •

– Economic Data• •

– Social Data•

• Levels of Economic Development– Less Developed Nations

• • •

– Newly Industrialized– More Developed Nations

• • •

• Economic Activities– Primary – Secondary– Tertiary– Quaternary