Developed country
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The term developed country, or advanced country, is used to categorize countries with developed economies 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.
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[edit] 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 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 20th century.[1]
[edit] 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, Cyprus[2], Hong Kong[2][3][4], Israel[2][5], Malta[2][5], Singapore[2][3], Slovenia[2], South Korea[2][3][6][7], and Taiwan[2][3], are now widely regarded as "developed countries".
Although Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China which is a developing country, it is still considered internationally as a separate economic entity as it has its own currency and customs controls. In contrast, Taiwan is a separate country from the People's Republic of China with their own distinct national currency, and is recognized as a distinct economic power.
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).
[edit] High income countries
"High income countries" are defined by the World Bank as countries with a Gross National Income per capita of $11,115 or more.[8] 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.[9]
When using GDP/cap as an indicator of "developed" status, one must take into account how some countries have achieved a (usually temporarily) high GDP/cap through natural resource exploitation (e.g., Nauru through phosphate extraction and Equatorial Guinea) without developing the diverse industrial and service-based economy necessary for "developed" status — similarly, the Bahamas, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and Saint Kitts and Nevis depend overwhelmingly on the tourist industry.[citation needed]
Despite their high per capita GDP, the GCC countries in the Middle East are generally not considered developed countries because their economies depend overwhelmingly on oil production and export; in many cases (notably Saudi Arabia), per capita GDP is also skewed by an unequal distribution of wealth.
[edit] Human Development Index
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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[10]. Since 1980, Norway (2001-2005), Japan (1991 and 1993), Canada (1985, 1992 and 1994-2000), Iceland (2006 and 2007) and Switzerland (1980) 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 from 0.894 in Brunei to 0.968 in Iceland. All countries included in the UN study on the IMF list had a high HDI. 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[11].
All countries listed by IMF or[12] CIA as "advanced" (as of 2007) - possess an HDI over 0.9 (as of 2004). All countries[13] possessing an HDI of 0.9 and over (as of 2004) - are also listed by IMF or CIA as "advanced" (as of 2007). Thus, all "advanced economies" (as of 2007) are characterized by an HDI score of 0.9 or higher (as of 2004).
[edit] 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",[2] while the CIA identifies 34 "developed countries" and 35 "advanced economies".[5] The World Bank identifies 65 "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. The Economist Intelligence Unit has crafted a list of the thirty countries with the highest quality of life.
[edit] CIA developed country list
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The CIA World Factbook classifies 34 economic entities as "developed countries (DCs):"[5]
| “ |
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 [sic][14], South Africa, and Turkey. |
” |
•  Andorra |
•  Faroe Islands |
•  Ireland |
•  Monaco |
•  Spain |
|
•  Australia |
•  Finland |
•  Israel |
•  Netherlands |
•  Sweden |
|
•  Austria |
•  France |
•  Italy |
•  New Zealand |
•  Switzerland |
|
• .svg){kind=small} Belgium |
•  Germany |
•  Japan |
•  Norway |
•  Turkey |
|
•  Bermuda (UK) |
•  Greece |
•  Liechtenstein |
•  Portugal |
•  United Kingdom |
|
•  Canada |
•  Holy See |
•  Luxembourg |
•  San Marino |
•  United States |
|
•  Denmark |
•  Iceland |
•  Malta |
•  South Africa |
[edit] 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:[5]
| • Andorra |
• Faroe Islands |
• Iceland |
• Monaco |
•  South Korea |
| • Australia |
• Finland |
• Ireland |
• Netherlands |
• Spain |
| • Austria |
• France |
• Israel |
• New Zealand |
• Sweden |
| • Belgium |
• Germany |
• Italy |
• Norway |
• Switzerland |
| • Bermuda (UK) |
• Greece |
• Japan |
• Portugal |
•  Taiwan |
| • Canada |
• Holy See |
• Liechtenstein |
• San Marino |
• United Kingdom |
| • Denmark |
•  Hong Kong |
• Luxembourg |
•  Singapore |
• United States |
[edit] IMF advanced economy list
According to the International Monetary Fund the following 32 countries are classified as "advanced economies:"[2]
| • 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[15] |
• United Kingdom |
| • France |
• Japan |
• Singapore |
• United States |
[edit] FTSE Global Equity Index
The FTSE Group classifies countries into four categories, the process by which stock markets are classified as either Developed or Emerging markets within the FTSE Global Equity Index Series. The categories are Developed, Advanced Emerging, Secondary Emerging, and Frontier.
| “ |
FTSE, helped by an expert committee of market practitioners, reviews quality of market criteria for all stock markets included in FTSE GEIS to assess the ease, cost and security of underlying investment transactions by international investors in all countries.[16] |
” |
FTSE classification, as of September 2008:[17]
Developed: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece[18], Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea[19], Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.
Advanced Emerging: 
Brazil, 
Hungary, 
Mexico, 
Poland, South Africa, Taiwan[20].
Secondary Emerging: 
Argentina[21], 
Chile, 
China, 
Colombia[21], 
Czech Republic, 
Egypt, 
India, 
Indonesia, 
Malaysia, 
Morocco, 
Pakistan, 
Peru, 
Philippines, 
Russia, 
Thailand, Turkey.
Frontier: 
Bahrain, 
Bangladesh, 
Botswana, 
Bulgaria, 
Croatia, Cyprus, 
Estonia, 
Côte d'Ivoire, 
Jordan, 
Kenya, 
Lithuania, 
Republic of Macedonia, 
Mauritius, 
Nigeria, 
Oman, 
Qatar, 
Romania, 
Serbia, 
Slovakia, Slovenia, 
Sri Lanka, 
Tunisia, 
Vietnam.
[edit] 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:[22]
[edit] Welfare states
Currently modern, expansive welfare states are still the exclusive domain and hallmark of the developed nations,[23] commonly constituting at least 20% of GDP, with the largest Scandinavian welfare states constituting over 40% of GDP.[24] 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.[23] These modern welfare states, which largely arose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, seeing their greatest expansion in the mid 20th century, have proven themselves highly effective in reducing relative as well as absolute poverty in all high-income OECD countries.[25][26][27]
| Country | Absolute poverty rate (threshold set at 40% of U.S. median household income)[25] |
Relative poverty rate[26] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
[edit] See also
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[edit] References
- ^ Sachs, Jeffrey (2005). The End of Poverty. The Penguin Press. 1-59420-045-9.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j IMF Advanced Economies List. World Economic Outlook, Database—WEO Groups and Aggregates Information, April 2008.
- ^ a b c d http://www.businesspme.com/uk/articles/economics/78/East-Asian-Tigers-.html
- ^ http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2747.htm
- ^ a b c d e CIA (2008). "Appendix B. International Organizations and Groups. World Factbook.". Retrieved on 2008-04-10.
- ^ http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1018.html
- ^ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/98c62f1c-850f-11dd-b148-0000779fd18c.html
- ^ "World Bank. (2007). Data & Statistics: Country Groups". Retrieved on 2007-06-20.
- ^ "UN. (2005). UNCTAD Handbook of Statistics.". Retrieved on 2007-07-09.
- ^ "UN. (2006). Human Development Report.". Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
- ^ "UN. (2006). Human Development Report: Summary.". Retrieved on 2007-07-07.
- ^ The official classification of "advanced countries" is originally made by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF list doesn't deal with non-IMF memebrs. 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.
- ^ 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).
- ^ 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.)
- ^ World Economic Outlook, International Monetary Fund, April 2008, p. 236, first complete paragraph, line 14.
- ^ FTSE Country Consultation Results March 2004
- ^ See FTSE Country Classification, September 2008
- ^ Possible change to Advanced Emerging.
- ^ From September 2009.
- ^ Possible change to Developed.
- ^ a b Possible change to Frontier.
- ^ The world in 2005: The Economist Intelligence Unit's quality-of-life index, The Economist. Accessed on line January 8, 2007.
- ^ a b Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
- ^ Barr, N. (2004). The economics of the welfare state. New York: Oxford University Press (USA).
- ^ a b Kenworthy, L. (1999). Do social-welfare policies reduce poverty? A cross-national assessment. Social Forces, 77(3), 1119-1139.
- ^ a b 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.
- ^ Smeeding, T. (2005). Public policy, economic inequality, and poverty: The United States in comparative perspective. Social Science Quarterly, 86, 955-983.
[edit] 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)
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