Classification of Countries and Development
Development is the process of improvement from one state to a perceived better state.
Countries are generally categorised into:
Avoid using the outdated terms of ‘first-world’ and ‘third-world’.
Countries can be further classified into:
The World Bank assigns the world's economies to four income groups
(New World Bank country classifications by income level: 2021-2022)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) classifies countries divides the world into three major groups:
(IMF Data Home Page - Dataset - IMF Data - scroll down to 'Fiscal Monitor (FM)')
Countries are generally categorised into:
- Developing - A country that is trying to become developed by improving economic, social and political factors.
- Developed – A country that has a strong economy, people’s physical and emotional needs are met, and there is political stability and freedom.
Avoid using the outdated terms of ‘first-world’ and ‘third-world’.
Countries can be further classified into:
- Least Developed Countries (LDC) or Less Economically Developed Country (LEDC) - Countries that have low income, population has poor health and is poorly educated, economy is based on unstable sectors like agriculture.
- More Developed Countries (MDC) or More Economically Developed Country (MEDC) - Countries that have high income, widespread and well-developed infrastructure, high level of industrialisation, good standard of living.
The World Bank assigns the world's economies to four income groups
- low income countries
- lower-middle income countries
- upper-middle income countries
- high income countries.
(New World Bank country classifications by income level: 2021-2022)
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) classifies countries divides the world into three major groups:
- Advanced Economies (35 countries as at 2021)
- Emerging Market and Middle-Income Economies (40 countries as at 2021)
- Low-Income Developing Countries (40 countries as at 2021)
(IMF Data Home Page - Dataset - IMF Data - scroll down to 'Fiscal Monitor (FM)')
Further Reading
Read this interesting blog on the World Bank website about classifying countries: Should we continue to use the term “developing world”? (worldbank.org)
Country Classification, by the United Nations: 2014wesp_country_classification.pdf
Country Classification, by the United Nations: 2014wesp_country_classification.pdf