Why national income is not a right criteria for measuring and comparing development in two nations?

Only national income cannot be considered as the right criteria for measuring and comparing development in two nations. Though it is an important attribute, it isn’t an absolute one. This is because for comparison there is always required two or more important characteristics. In other words, measuring development in different countries requires not only income but also various other factors that include its population, literacy rate and mortality rate, etc.

We can understand this fact with the help of the statistics of two states, Kerala and Punjab. The per capita income of Punjab (Rs. 26,000) is higher than that of Kerala (22,800). However, the infant mortality rate (49%) and literacy rate (70%) in Punjab are much lower than Kerala infant mortality rate (11%) and literacy rate (91%).

Therefore, we can see that national income alone cannot be used for measuring the development of a nation or a state.