ABSTRACT
The previous chapter examined a number of welfare indicators including availability of basic needs (especially food), demographic indicators (especially mortality rates), anthropometric measures and wage data. The chapter concluded that in spite of the growth in GDP which occurred in most parts of the region between 1900 and 1930, improvements in living standards were modest, and by the late 1930s most colonies still had low educational enrolments and high mortality rates, compared with the metropolitan powers. The Philippines had probably the highest living standards in the region, using educational indicators, mortality rates and per capita GDP estimates. These indicators suggested that living standards in the Philippines were similar to Taiwan and above Korea. But even in the Philippines, rice availability per capita was low and fell over the 1930s. Surveys carried out in the 1930s showed that nutritional levels among some segments of the population were well below acceptable standards. In other parts of Southeast Asia, including independent Thailand, food availability was higher but access to modern healthcare and secular education was very limited.
