Is GDP best for measuring development?

The per capita income of USA is about USD 42,000 per annum while that of China is about USD 3000 to 4000. Yet China has taken the second place in the world in economic growth (or wealth). But is GDP best for measuring economic growth or development? Does it measure social, natural, human, cultural and eco-systemic capital?

It is true that per capita income may not be the best measure as there are countries with small number of population and gross domestic product divide can generate big figure. Thus, GDP is better than per capita as measure of a country’s growth but GDP itself is not the best measure.

In my opinion, many variables such as social, human, cultural, natural and evolutionary capitals and also the fair distribution of national resources among peoples of a nation need to be incorporated. Such capitals may be subjective and difficult to measure but means and methodologies need to be devised to better estimate a nation’s growth and development. It is true that measuring growth may be easier as it is more of economic and quantifiable but difficult to measure development as development is a sum total of economic growth and other factors such as social, cultural, etc.