Developed country

As industrialized countries, industrialized countries or industrialized nations, English developed countries, referred to generally technologically advanced countries with a significant own industrial production of goods. In them there is an industrial society marked by highly specialized division of labor. One speaks also of the countries of the first world.

Terminology

Industrial states in the original and proper sense are states which predominantly produce their economic power from industrial production, in contrast to the agricultural States, where agriculture predominates. The first country in the world, was true to this definition, the United Kingdom was. There, the beginnings of industrialization translated already the end of the 18th century. Developed countries are also the strongest economy, the rich countries. However, the service sector is increasingly important worldwide and the term industrial state is extended to states with a sophisticated, powerful, mostly supported by the service sector economy.

The term developed country is misleading, since, as in the English language ( Industrialized country or developed country ), actually industrially developed country or developed country should read. In the German language, he will continue to use general language. Industrial country is considered as a term to differentiate these from emerging economies and developing countries. As a definition can be considered more of a negative definition: developed countries are rich countries that are not developing or emerging countries.

The term, therefore, the importance of not more fair, since the division of the states no longer takes place mainly on their degree of industrialization, but primarily on the basis of the gross domestic product per capita. States with a high service take it in ranking the leading positions. Therefore, other terms are used in publications such as " OECD countries and other market- organized industrial countries ", " countries of the First World " or English advanced economies.

The term First World was coined during the Cold War for the highly industrialized market economy countries, while the planned economy countries were designated as the Second World. With the end of the East- West conflict, this classification has lost its meaning. In contrast, the term Third World has remained in use.

World Bank criteria

The World Bank, 2004, the States differentiated by income and gross national product (GNP ):

Style

As further criteria of classification of states could also apply: infrastructure, investment, terms of trade ( terms of trade ), but also demographic characteristics (such as life expectancy and education), health care or environmental conditions. But the fact is that the conceptual delimitation of states almost exclusively serves the economically oriented gross domestic product per capita.

From different sides (eg, World Bank, OECD, IMF, EC) lists with emerging or developing countries were created in recent decades. There is a binding list does not, however; the numbers in the lists vary considerably and the specifications are also featured politically. Generally valid, measurable and accepted standards exist.

In 1990, the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme ), made ​​the development program of the United Nations, the attempt to create a differentiated approach of evaluation. It also social factors should be considered increasingly. The Human Development Index (HDI ) is published annually published by the UNDP Human Development Report (HDR).

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