Economic development is a process through which policy makers, citizens, and business owners initiate policies to promote the well-being of their community and improve the quality of life of its residents. At the heart of economic development is the creation of wealth and the use of that wealth to provide for social and economic welfare. Economic development is frequently equated with economic growth, and measured by indicators such as gross domestic product or per capita income. These are only partial (and sometimes misleading) indicators of economic development, which implies improvements in health, access to education, freedom of expression, and social equality.

Economic development, as a sub-field in economics, is equivalent to development economics and is focused almost exclusively on less-developed economies. The scale of analysis is the nation. In economic geography, economic development theory focuses on regions and labor markets in both advanced and less developed economies. It is more holistic than economics, utilizing methods that consider differences in the economic development paths of places and regions.

Economic development is also a professional field in which knowledge from economics or economic geography is applied. By contrast with their academic cousins, who are interested in models and measurement, professional economic developers also have normative goals. They want to improve the quality of life in communities, regions, and nations.

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