Third World

Course Teacher
Taposh Ranjan Sarker
B.Sc.(BUTex), M.Sc.- Running (BUTex)
MBA (BUP)
Lecturer(DTE),
Northern University Bangladesh
 Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define
countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and
NATO (which along with its allies represented the First World),
or communism and the Soviet Union (which along with its allies
represented the Second World). This definition provided a way
of broadly categorizing the nations of the earth into three
groups based on social, political, and economic divisions. Due to
many of the 3rd and 2nd world countries being extremely poor,
it became a stereotype such that people commonly refer to
undeveloped countries as "third world countries". Third world
countries included most of Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
 Least developed country
• low-income (three-year average GNI per capita of less
than US $905, which must exceed $1,086 to leave the list)
• human resource weakness (based on indicators of
nutrition, health, education and adult literacy) and
• economic vulnerability (based on instability of agricultural
production, instability of exports of goods and services,
economic importance of non-traditional activities,
merchandise export concentration, handicap of economic
smallness, and the percentage of population displaced by
natural disasters)
 World bank classification
• Low income countries had GNI per capita of US$1005 or
less.

• Lower middle income countries had GNI per capita

between US$1006 and US$3,975.

• Upper middle income countries had GNI per capita

between US$3,976 and US$12,275.

• High income countries had GNI above US$12,276.

 Developed country
• Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United
Nations, defined a developed country as follows. "A
developed country is one that allows all its citizens
to enjoy a free and healthy life in a safe
environment."
• The UN also notes: In common practice, Japan in
Asia, Canada and the United States in
northern America, Australia and New Zealand in
Oceania, and Western Europe, are considered
"developed" regions or areas.
 Developing country

A developing country, also known as a less-

developed country, is a nation with a low level
of material well-being. Since no single definition
of the term developing country is recognized
internationally, the levels of development may
vary widely within so-called developing
countries. Some developing countries have high
average standards of living.
 Concept of development

The development of a country is measured with

statistical indexes such as income per capita (per
person) (gross domestic product), life expectancy,
the rate of literacy, et cetera. The UN has
developed the Human Development Index (HDI),
a compound indicator of the above statistics, to
gauge the level of human development for
countries where data is available.