Final answer:
Hans Rosling believes the idea of developing countries is outdated as it oversimplifies global development, not accounting for the significant health and economic transitions that have occurred. He urges reexamining preconceived notions about development and seeing it as a spectrum.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to Hans Rosling's TED talk, he believes that the concept of developing countries is somewhat outdated because it fails to reflect the vast changes and improvements that have occurred in global health and economics. He argues that categorizing nations as merely 'developed' or 'developing' overlooks the reality of a continuous spectrum of development, with many countries having already undergone significant transitions in terms of health and economic status.
Rosling emphasizes that the problem with this binary viewpoint is that it creates an oversimplified and often incorrect understanding of the world. For example, he points out that there are countries with various levels of income and demographic characteristics within what is broadly classified as the developing world. The long-standing perception that affluent countries have low growth rates while poorer ones have high growth rates is more complex than typically acknowledged, and such generalizations may not hold true across the board.
Progress in global development has shown that countries can experience rapid changes, and focusing solely on a divide between developed and developing nations does not capture the dynamic nature of economic growth and the demographic transition. Thus, Rosling urges us to reexamine our preconceived notions about global development and population growth.