Critics of measuring development merely in terms of economic growth have developed alternative measures.
The most well-known is the Human Development Index (HDI) used by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
A countries HDI rank is based on how well it scores in terms of its population’s (i) life expectancy, (ii) education and (iii) standard of living.
Consequently, HDI is sensitive to how wealth is distributed within countries.
A country with high GDP may nevertheless have a relatively poor HDI ranking.
For example, in 2007/8 South Africa ranked 56 in terms of GDP yet had an HDI ranking of 121.