Hello
Thank you for your question on Third World countries.
The United Nations uses the phrases 'developing countries' and 'least
developed countries' rather than 'Third World'. While it does have an
official list of 'least developed countries' it does not have an
official list of 'developing countries' because its members have not
agreed on the criteria.
LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
These are the countries designated 'least developed' by the United
Nations:
"Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso,
Burundi, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad,
Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Djibouti,
Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau,
Haiti, Kiribati, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lesotho, Liberia,
Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar,
Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone,
Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Republic
of Tanzania, Vanuatu, Yemen and Zambia.
The least developed countries are the poorest countries in the world.
They are officially designated as "least developed" by the General
Assembly of the United Nations, i.e. by the world community as a
whole, on the basis of a number of agreed criteria. There are
currently 48 of them..."
These are the figures collected in preparation for the Third United
Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries in Brussels in
2001. See:
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
http://www.unctad.org/en/subsites/ldcs/aboutldc.htm
There's a table showing their status with the World Trade
Organisation:
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development table of least
developed countries
http://www.unctad.org/en/subsites/ldcs/document/ldc-list.htm
The criteria for inclusion are:
"The thresholds for inclusion in the list of LDCs are: population of
less than 75 million; per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of less
than 900 dollars; Augmented Physical Quality of Life Index (combining
health, nutrition and education) of less than 59; and an economic
vulnerability index (EVI) of less than 36."
Third World Network
http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/grow.htm
This article also describes Senegal's recent addition to the UN list
of Least Developed Countries, bringing the total to 49.
DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
The World Bank's list of developing countries can be found here:
Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics: List of Developing
Countries
http://www.siam.org/membership/outreachlist.htm
There's a more detailed classification of countries here:
World Bank: Country Groups
http://www.worldbank.org/data/countryclass/classgroups.htm
Their criteria for classification are explained on a page where you
can download their 'country classification table' in Excel format if
you wish:
"For operational and analytical purposes, the World Bank’s main
criterion for classifying economies is gross national income (GNI) per
capita. In previous editions of our publications, this term was
referred to as gross national product, or GNI."
World Bank: country classification
http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/class.htm
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The United Nations attitude:
"Many international statistics users want to know which countries are
considered "developed" (or "industrialized") and which "developing".
There is no official United Nations listing of developed and
developing countries because there is no international consensus on
what measurement criteria to apply."
This comes from a page at the University of Wisconsin describing the
United Nations Statistical Yearbook (available on CD-Rom)
http://dpls.dacc.wisc.edu/apdu/un_cd_country.html
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There's one simple list of Third World countries on a webpage at Old
Dominion University. They offer a 1999 list based on:
The Third World: Premises of U. S. Policy, edited by Thompson, W.
Scott. San Francisco: Institute of Competency Studies (1978)
and updated with United Nations criteria.
They note that 'Developing Nations' is a more politically correct term
than 'Third World' and that the list does not include China or former
Soviet Bloc countries which might be considered eligible for
inclusion.
List of Third World Countries
http://web.odu.edu/webroot/instr/ed/wreed.nsf/pages/ots3703rdwn
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Least developed countries 2000 report and other relevant publications
downloadable from:
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
http://www.unctad.org/en/pub/ps1ldc00.en.htm
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I hope this answer is helpful. Please let me know if it needs any
clarification.
Regards - Leli
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