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The term developed country, or advanced country, is used to categorize countries that have achieved a high level of industrialization in which the tertiary and quaternary sectors of industry dominate. Countries not fitting this definition may be referred to as developing countries.

This level of economic development usually translates into a high income per capita and a high Human Development Index (HDI). Countries with high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita often fit the above description of a developed economy. However, anomalies exist when determining "developed" status by the factor GDP per capita alone.

Synonyms

Modern terms synonymous with the term developed country or advanced country include industrialized country, more developed country (MDC), more economically developed country (MEDC), Global North country, first world country, and post-industrial country. The term industrialized country may be somewhat ambiguous, as industrialization is an ongoing process that is hard to define. The term MEDC is one used by modern geographers to specifically describe the status of the countries referred to: more economically developed. The first industrialised country was England, followed by Germany, France, the remainder of the United Kingdom and other Western European countries. According to economists such as Jeffrey Sachs, however, the current divide between the developed and developing world is largely a phenomenon of the 20 century.

Definition

Traditionally, Canada and the United States in North America, Japan in Asia, Australia and New Zealand in Oceania, and most countries in Northern Europe and Western Europe have been considered "developed countries".

Additionally, the original East Asian Tiger countries —Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea— along with Cyprus, Israel, Malta and Slovenia, are now considered to be at or near to fully developed status.

Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, a developing country; however, it is a separate economic entity with its own currency and customs controls, and is recognized as developed. Taiwan has limited diplomatic recognition and is claimed by the People's Republic of China; however it functions as a de facto independent state, and is also recognized as developed.

In the old international reports, the countries of Eastern Europe (including Slovenia which still belongs to "Eastern Europe Group" in the UN institutions) as well as the former Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.) countries (including those in Asia) and Mongolia, were not included under either developed or developing regions, but rather were referred to as "countries in transition"; however they are now widely regarded as "developing countries" (except for Slovenia, see above).

Human Development Index

The UN HDI is a statistical measure that gauges a country's level of human development. While there is a strong correlation between having a high HDI score and a prosperous economy, the UN points out that the HDI accounts for more than income or productivity. Unlike GDP per capita or per capita income, the HDI takes into account how income is turned "into education and health opportunities and therefore into higher levels of human development." A few examples are Italy and the United States. Despite a relatively large difference in GDP per capita, both countries rank roughly equal in term of overall human development. Since 1980, Norway (2001-2006), Japan (1990-91 and 1993), Canada (1992 and 1994-2000) and Iceland (2007-08) have had the highest HDI score. Countries with a score of over 0.800 are considered to have a "high" standard of human development. The top 30 countries have scores ranging from 0.912 in Cyprus to 0.968 in Iceland. Several small countries, such as Andorra, Liechtenstein and Macau were not reviewed by the United Nations. Thus, these countries have not received an official HDI score.

Many countries listed by IMF or CIA as "advanced" (as of 2008), possess an HDI over 0.9 (as of 2006). Many countries possessing an HDI of 0.9 and over (as of 2004), are also listed by IMF or CIA as "advanced" (as of 2007). Thus, many "advanced economies" (as of 2008) are characterized by an HDI score of 0.9 or higher (as of 2006).

The latest index was released on December 18, 2008. This so-called "statistical update" covers the period up to 2006 and was published without an accompanying report on human development. The update is relevant due to newly released estimates of purchasing power parities (PPP), implying substantial adjustments for many countries, resulting in changes in HDI values and, in many cases, HDI ranks.

Lists of prosperous economies

While there is no official guideline for which country may or may not be considered developed, different institutions have created certain categories for the economically most prosperous countries. The IMF identifies 32 "advanced economies", while the CIA identifies 34 "developed countries" and 35 "advanced economies". The World Bank identifies 66 "high income countries", which are classified either as developed or developing by the UN. The criteria used to create these lists differ across these organizations as does the placement of certain countries.

CIA developed country list

The CIA World Factbook classifies 34 economic entities as "developed countries (DCs):"

the top group in the hierarchy of developed countries (DCs), former USSR/Eastern Europe (former USSR/EE), and less developed countries (LDCs); includes the market-oriented economies of the mainly democratic nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Bermuda, Israel, South Africa, and the European ministates; also known as the First World, high-income countries, the North, industrial countries; generally have a per capita GDP in excess of $10,000 although four OECD countries and South Africa have figures well under $10,000 and two of the excluded OPEC countries have figures of more than $10,000; the 34 DCs are: Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holy See, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, NZ, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, US; note - similar to the new International Monetary Fund (IMF) term "advanced economies" that adds Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan but drops Malta, Mexico , South Africa, and Turkey.

•  Andorra	•  Faroe Islands	•  Ireland	•  Monaco	•  Spain
•  Australia	•  Finland	•  Israel	•  Netherlands	•  Sweden
•  Austria	•  France	•  Italy	•  New Zealand	•   Switzerland
•  Belgium	•  Germany	•  Japan	•  Norway	•  Turkey
•  Bermuda	•  Greece	•  Liechtenstein	•  Portugal	•  United Kingdom
•  Canada	•  Holy See	•  Luxembourg	•  San Marino	•  United States
•  Denmark	•  Iceland	•  Malta	•  South Africa

CIA advanced economy list

The official classification of "advanced economies" was originally made by the IMF. The CIA intends to follow the IMF but also to add non-IMF members. Thus, until March 2001, the CIA list was more comprehensive than the IMF list. Since 2001, however, Cyprus, and more recently Slovenia and Malta, were added to the IMF list but not to the CIA advanced economy list. Below is the current CIA advanced economy list, consisting of 35 countries:

•  Andorra	•  Faroe Islands	•  Iceland	•  Monaco	•  South Korea
•  Australia	•  Finland	•  Ireland	•  Netherlands	•  Spain
•  Austria	•  France	•  Israel	•  New Zealand	•  Sweden
•  Belgium	•  Germany	•  Italy	•  Norway	•   Switzerland
•  Bermuda	•  Greece	•  Japan	•  Portugal	•  Taiwan
•  Canada	•  Holy See	•  Liechtenstein	•  San Marino	•  United Kingdom
•  Denmark	•  Hong Kong	•  Luxembourg	•  Singapore	•  United States

IMF advanced economy list

According to the International Monetary Fund the following 32 countries are classified as "advanced economies:"

•  Australia	•  Germany	•  Luxembourg	•  Slovenia
•  Austria	•  Greece	•  Malta	•  South Korea
•  Belgium	•  Hong Kong	•  Netherlands	•  Spain
•  Canada	•  Iceland	•  New Zealand	•  Sweden
•  Cyprus	•  Ireland	•  Norway	•   Switzerland
•  Denmark	•  Israel	•  Portugal	•  Taiwan
•  Finland	•  Italy	•  San Marino	•  United Kingdom
•  France	•  Japan	•  Singapore	•  United States

World Bank high-income economies

"High income economies" are defined by the World Bank as countries with a Gross National Income per capita of $11,456 or more. According to the United Nations definition some high income countries may also be developing countries. Thus, a high income country may be classified as either developed or developing.

According to the World Bank the following 66 countries and territories (including Taiwan) are classified as "high-income economies":

•  Andorra	•  Canada	•  French Polynesia	•  Italy	•  New Zealand	•  Slovenia
•  Antigua and Barbuda	•  Cayman Islands	•  Germany	•  Japan	•  Northern Mariana Islands	•  South Korea
•  Aruba	• Channel Islands	•  Greece	•  Kuwait	•  Norway	•  Spain
•  Australia	•  Cyprus	•  Greenland	•  Liechtenstein	•  Oman	•  Sweden
•  Austria	•  Czech Republic	•  Guam	•  Luxembourg	•  Portugal	•   Switzerland
•  The Bahamas	•  Denmark	•  Hong Kong	•  Macau	•  Puerto Rico	•  Taiwan
•  Bahrain	•  Equatorial Guinea	•  Hungary	•  Malta	•  Qatar	•  Trinidad and Tobago
•  Barbados	•  Estonia	•  Iceland	•  Monaco	•  San Marino	•  United Arab Emirates
•  Belgium	•  Faroe Islands	•  Ireland	•  Netherlands	•  Saudi Arabia	•  United Kingdom
•  Bermuda	•  Finland	•  Isle of Man	•  Netherlands Antilles	•  Singapore	•  United States
•  Brunei	•  France	•  Israel	•  New Caledonia	•  Slovakia	•  U.S. Virgin Islands

High Income Countries not classified by World Bank:

• Holy See

Quality-of-life survey

Research about standards of living and quality of life by the Economist Intelligence Unit resulted in a quality-of-life index. As of 2005, the 30 countries with the highest index are:

Welfare states

Currently modern, expansive welfare states are still the exclusive domain and hallmark of the developed nations, commonly constituting at least 20% of GDP, with the largest Scandinavian welfare states constituting over 40% of GDP. Prominent sociologist Gosta Esping-Andersen states that the developed nations have developed a new kind of capitalism exclusive to them, which he dubbs "welfare capitalism." This type of capitalism seeks to ensure economic security, independence, stablity and opportunity by creating expansive public sectors that fuse public policy and market forces. According to Esping-Andersen, welfare state policies and economic forces are completely interwoven in these nations, with public policy shaping such basic market attributes as consumer demand, capital stock build-up, labor pariticipation rates, worker productivity and the extent and ramifications of the business cycle. These modern welfare states, which largely arose in the late 19 and early 20 centuries, seeing their greatest expansion in the mid 20 century, have proven themselves highly effective in reducing relative as well as absolute poverty in all high-income OECD countries.

Country	Absolute poverty rate (threshold set at 40% of U.S. median household income)		Relative poverty rate
	Pre-transfer	Post-transfer	Pre-transfer	Post-transfer
Sweden	23.7	5.8	14.8	4.8
Norway	9.2	1.7	12.4	4.0
Netherlands	22.1	7.3	18.5	11.5
Finland	11.9	3.7	12.4	3.1
Denmark	26.4	5.9	17.4	4.8
Germany	15.2	4.3	9.7	5.1
Switzerland	12.5	3.8	10.9	9.1
Canada	22.5	6.5	17.1	11.9
France	36.1	9.8	21.8	6.1
Belgium	26.8	6.0	19.5	4.1
Australia	23.3	11.9	16.2	9.2
United Kingdom	16.8	8.7	16.4	8.2
United States	21.0	11.7	17.2	15.1
Italy	30.7	14.3	19.7	9.1

Summary

Countries	CIA DCs	CIA AE	IMF AE	WB HIE NL	HDI≥0.9	QoL≥7	All
Australia	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Austria	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Belgium	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Canada	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Denmark	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Finland	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
France	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Germany	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Greece	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Iceland	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Ireland	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Italy	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Japan	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Luxembourg	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Netherlands	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
New Zealand	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Norway	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Portugal	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Spain	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Sweden	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
Switzerland	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
United States	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	6
China, Republic of (Taiwan)	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	5
Hong Kong	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	5
Israel	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	5
San Marino	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	—	5
Singapore	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	5
United Kingdom	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	5
Andorra	YES	YES	—	YES	YES	—	4
Cyprus	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	4
Liechtenstein	YES	YES	—	YES	YES	—	4
Monaco	YES	YES	—	YES	YES	—	4
Korea, South	NO	YES	YES	YES	YES	NO	4
Bermuda	YES	YES	—	YES	—	—	3
Faroe Islands	YES	YES	—	YES	—	—	3
Malta	YES	NO	YES	YES	NO	NO	3
Slovenia	NO	NO	YES	YES	YES	NO	3
Bahrain	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	2
Brunei	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	2
Greenland	NO	NO	—	YES	YES	—	2
Holy See	YES	YES	—	—	—	—	2
Kuwait	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	2
Macau	NO	NO	—	YES	YES	—	2
Puerto Rico	NO	NO	—	YES	YES	—	2
United Arab Emirates	NO	NO	NO	YES	YES	NO	2
Aruba	NO	NO	NO	YES	—	—	1
Bahamas, The	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	—	1
Barbados	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	1
Cayman Islands	NO	NO	—	YES	—	—	1
Channel Islands	NO	NO	—	YES	—	—	1
Czech Republic	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	1
Estonia	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	1
French Polynesia	NO	NO	—	YES	—	—	1
Guam	NO	NO	—	YES	—	—	1
Hungary	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	1
Isle of Man	NO	NO	—	YES	—	—	1
Netherlands Antilles	NO	NO	—	YES	—	—	1
New Caledonia	NO	NO	—	YES	—	—	1
Northern Mariana Islands	NO	NO	—	YES	—	—	1
Oman	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	1
Qatar	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	1
Saudi Arabia	NO	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO	1
South Africa	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	1
Turkey	YES	NO	NO	NO	NO	NO	1
Virgin Islands, U.S.	NO	NO	—	YES	—	—	1

See also

• Emerging markets

References

1. Sachs, Jeffrey (2005). The End of Poverty. The Penguin Press. ISBN 1-59420-045-9. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |tlocation= ignored (help)
2. http://www.businesspme.com/uk/articles/economics/78/East-Asian-Tigers-.html
3. "UN. (2006). Human Development Report". Retrieved 2007-07-07.
4. "UN. (2008). Human Development Index: A Statistical Update". Retrieved 2008-12-22.
5. The official classification of "advanced countries" is originally made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF list doesn't deal with non-IMF members. The CIA intends to follow IMF list but adds few countries which aren't dealt with by IMF due to their not being IMF members. By May 2001, the advanced country list of the CIA was more comprehensive than the original IMF list. However, since May 2001, three additional countries (Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia) have been added to the original IMF list, thus leaving the CIA list not updated.
6. Namely sovereign states, i.e. excluding Macau: In 2003 the government of Macau calculated its HDI as being 0.909 (the UN does not calculate Macau's HDI); In January 2007, the People's Daily reported (from China Modernization Report 2007): "In 2004...Macau...had reached the level of developed countries". However, Macau is not recognized by any international organisation as a developed/advanced territory, while the UNCTAD organisaion (of the UN), as well as the CIA, classify Macao as a "developing" territory. The World Bank classifies Macau as a high income economy (along with developed economies as well as with few developing economies).
8. ^ IMF Advanced Economies List. World Economic Outlook, Database—WEO Groups and Aggregates Information, October 2008.
9. ^ CIA (2008). "Appendix B. International Organizations and Groups. [[World Factbook]]". Retrieved 2008-04-10. {{cite web}}: URL–wikilink conflict (help)
10. Mexico actually appears in neither list. Many authorities have classified Mexico as a newly industrialized country (see e.g., p. 164, Globalization and the Transformation of Foreign Economic Policy, Paweł Bożyk, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2006, ISBN 0-75-464638-6, or p. 126, The Limits of Convergence, Mauro F. Guillén, Princeton University Press, 2001, ISBN 0691057052.)
11. World Economic Outlook, International Monetary Fund, October 2008, second paragraph, line 9-10.
12. "World Bank, Country Classification". Retrieved 2008-10-12.
13. "UN. (2005). UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics" (PDF). Retrieved 2007-07-09.
14. ^ World Bank - Country Classification. Accessed on October 12, 2008, last paragraph, last line.
15. World Bank - Country Groups. Accessed on October 12, 2008.
16. The world in 2005: The Economist Intelligence Unit's quality-of-life index, The Economist. Accessed on line January 8, 2007.
17. ^ Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
18. Barr, N. (2004). The economics of the welfare state. New York: Oxford University Press (USA).
19. ^ Kenworthy, L. (1999). Do social-welfare policies reduce poverty? A cross-national assessment. Social Forces, 77(3), 1119-1139.
20. ^ Bradley, D., Huber, E., Moller, S., Nielson, F. & Stephens, J. D. (2003). Determinants of relative poverty in advanced capitalist democracies. American Sociological Review, 68(3), 22-51.
21. Smeeding, T. (2005). Public policy, economic inequality, and poverty: The United States in comparative perspective. Social Science Quarterly, 86, 955-983.
22. Indicator Tables HDI 2008, United Nations Development Programme, December 18, 2008. Some entities are not included in this report. In this case an HDI figure from the UN's last available report has been used, except in the cases of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Macau, which the UN has not calculated an HDI for; here, the figure of the entities' governments has been used.

External links

• IMF (advanced economies)
• The Economist (quality of life survey)
• The World Factbook (developed countries)
• United Nations Statistics Division (definition)
• United Nations Statistics Division (developed regions)
• World Bank (high-income economies)

Template:Lists of countries

• Country classifications
• Human geography
• Economic geography
• Development
• Lists of countries