South Asian Country with the most dramatic Economic & Social change (2000 to 2023)
23-Year Journey of Radical Change!
Over the past two decades, South Asia has undergone substantial changes in its economic landscape.
So, to figure out which country had the most dramatic changes, I decided to do a little analysis and some research to find out the reasons behind it. Hope you enjoy reading it!
First of all, the most difficult phase...
Data !!
After some research, I found that I could collect the relevant data from the World Bank.
But…
I was in luck because someone had already uploaded this data to Kaggle
The dataset is quite rich and provides great insights. I’ve dropped the columns with more than 50% missing values to ensure the analysis is meaningful.
(df.isna().sum() / df.shape[0]) * 100Let’s start our analysis..
Economic Growth
1. GDP Annual Growth (%)
Hmm..
Looking closely, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and the Maldives managed to keep a steady upward trend, showing they’ve handled economic challenges pretty well over the years.
But… in contrast, Afghanistan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka experienced more ups and downs, with lower average growth.
One thing that I noticed is that the Maldives reliant on tourism, saw a huge dip during COVID-19 (-32.9% in 2020), but it made an impressive comeback with 37% growth in 2021 as travel resumed..
To deepen this analysis, I created a summary table to show each country’s average GDP growth rate across the whole period and to categorize their growth trends more clearly
2. GDP per Capita ($)
Bangladesh and Maldives experienced significant GDP per capita increases, with Maldives reaching $12,667 by 2023
India also grew steadily, with GDP per capita rising from $442 in 2000 to $2,485 in 2023. And this is a sign of India’s expanding economy, supported by various industries, but it still lags behind smaller countries like Bangladesh and the Maldives in growth rate.
All in all, Bangladesh and Maldives really stole the show…
3. Unemployment Rates (%)
Afghanistan’s unemployment shot up to 14% by 2023, mainly because of all the chaos from the Taliban takeover and political instability.
Nepal’s been stuck around 10%, mostly because of its tough geography and heavy reliance on remittances from workers abroad. Sri Lanka’s unemployment’s been all over the place, mostly because of its debt crisis and the hit to tourism from the 2019 bombings. Pakistan’s been kind of in the middle ground not terrible but not great either because it’s just floating between 4–6%. Bangladesh, in contrast, has maintained relatively stable unemployment rates around 4%, largely due to its booming garment industry, which provides significant employment, particularly for women.
The Maldives is weird because it’s all about tourism. When tourists stopped coming during the financial crisis boom!! .. unemployment shot up to 12%. That must’ve been scary for everyone working in hotels and restaurants.
India... looking pretty good though. For such a huge country, keeping unemployment around 4–5% is actually impressive. They’ve got all these tech jobs and stuff, plus lots of people working in shops and small businesses.
The thing I noticed…
Political stability and a more diverse economy are a game changer when it comes to job opportunities. The countries with a single focus, like tourism or remittances, are just way more vulnerable when things go wrong
4. Inflation Rate (%)
Inflation rate basically shows how the prices of goods and services change over time.
Sri Lanka had a crazy peak in 2022 with increase in inflation about 49.72%, and Pakistan followed in 2023 about 30.7%
In both cases, political instability and economic mismanagement played a huge role.
Imagine living in a place where every basic item gets more expensive almost overnight, but there are no jobs or sources to earn money. That’s what people in these countries have been dealing with.
In contrast, countries like Bangladesh and India managed to keep inflation more under control. This makes a big difference in everyday life if prices are steady it’s a lot easier for people to plan and save.
Quite obvious that the countries with steady growth in gdp has managed inflation rate as well, which shows balanced growth like Bangladesha
5. Foreign direct investment, net inflows (% of GDP)
The Maldives consistently attracts higher FDI as a percentage of GDP compared to larger economies in the region like India
This is partly due to:
Its smaller GDP size (making investments appear larger as a percentage)
For example, if both the Maldives and India receive the same amount of FDI in dollar terms, the percentage impact on GDP will be much larger for the Maldives simply because its overall economy is smaller.
- Its tourism-focused economy
- Strategic location in the Indian Ocean
And again, Bangladesh and India show more modest FDI%.
Social Indicators
1. Life Expectancy
All countries show an upward trend over the period, showing general improvement in healthcare and living conditions..
Some disruption is visible around 2020–2021, obviously due to the COVID-19 pandemic
- The Maldives shows the most stable and highest trajectory around 81 years by 2023
- Sri Lanka maintains second position (around 76–77 years)
- Afghanistan, while still lowest, shows improvement from around 55 years in 2000 to about 63 years by 2023
2. Urbanization
The rate of urbanization accelerated in most countries after 2005. There’s a clear divergence between rapidly urbanizing nations (Bhutan, Maldives) and slower-growing ones (Sri Lanka, Nepal). Bangladesh shows consistent growth throughout the period.
And... Pakistan maintained relatively stable urban population levels early on but showed growth in later years.
Despite being a small island nation, Maldives shows one of the highest urbanization rates
Whereas, India, despite its economic growth, shows moderate urbanization rates compared to some smaller neighbors...
3. Infant Mortality Rate
Okhayyy.. So all countries have shown a declining trend in infant mortality rates, which is a positive development for the region. The steepest declines occurred in the early years (2000–2010), which indirectly means significant improvements in healthcare and living conditions.
For instance,
Afghanistan experienced dramatic improvement, with its infant mortality rate dropping from approximately ~90 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to around ~45 in 2023. Similarly, Pakistan’s rate decreased from around ~85 to ~50, reflecting notable progress.
Countries like India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan all showed substantial improvements, roughly halving their infant mortality rates. Meanwhile, Maldives and Sri Lanka maintained consistently low rates, with continued positive trends over the years, indicating that their healthcare systems have remained effective in reducing infant mortality
Now it’s time to answer our question:
Which South Asian country has the most dramatic economic and social changes from 2000–2023 ??
India & Bangladesh
Taddaa…
Because what I’ve observed is:
If we focus on global scale and diversity of changes (involving multiple sectors, technological advancements, and geopolitical influence), India's transformation has affected not just its own population but has had global repercussions in the fields of technology, business, and politics.
However, if we focus more on rapid, targeted improvements in social indicators and economic growth in a specific sector (like garments and poverty reduction), Bangladesh could be seen as having one of the most impressive, concentrated transformations in South Asia.
I’ve made all the visualizations in Tableau in order to practice. For other analyses, I used Jupyter Notebook and Pandas.
Please share any suggestions or areas for improvement in the comments section.
- Connect with me on LinkedIn for professional chat and collaboration!
- https://github.com/emanalytic/South-Asian-Economic-Social-Trends-Analysis
