The term "first world" refers to countries that are democracies, which are technologically advanced, and whose citizens have a high standard of living.
The terms First World, Second World, and Third World were used to divide the nations of Earth into three broad categories. The three terms did not arise simultaneously. After World War II, people began to speak of the NATO and Warsaw Pact countries as two major blocs, often using such terms as the "Western Bloc" and the "Eastern Bloc". The two "worlds" were not numbered. It was eventually pointed out that there were a great many countries that fit into neither category, and in 1952 French demographer Alfred Sauvy coined the term "Third World" to describe this latter group; retroactively, the first two groups came to be known as the "First World" and "Second World".

There were a number of countries that did not fit comfortably into this neat definition of partition, including Switzerland, Sweden, and the Republic of Ireland, who chose to be neutral. Finland was under the Soviet Union's sphere of influence but was not communist, nor was it a member of the Warsaw Pact. Yugoslavia adopted a policy of neutrality, and was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement. Austria was under the United States' sphere of influence, but in 1955, when the country became a fully independent republic, it did so under the condition that it remain neutral. Turkey and Greece, both of which joined NATO in 1952, were not predominantly in Western Europe. Spain did not join NATO until 1982, towards the end of the Cold War and after the death of the authoritarian dictator Francisco Franco.

In recent years, as many "developing" countries have industrialized, the term Fourth World has been coined to refer to countries that remain predominantly agricultural or nomadic and lack industrial infrastructure. In contrast, countries that were previously considered developing countries and that now have a more developed economy, yet not fully developed, are grouped under the term Newly-industrialized countries or NIC. Some nations have developed their own classification scheme consisting of the "Third World" and the "Two-Thirds World". This system is similar to the former in that it also reflects economic status or behaviour. In terms of material resources, the "Third World" consumes one third, while the "Two-Thirds World" consumes two-thirds of the resources.


High income countries:

While there is no precise definition of the "first" world, the World Bank does categorize countries by income, as high, upper, and lower middle, as well as low income. High income countries are thereby defined as countries with a Gross National Income per capita of US$11,116 or more. According to the World Bank, the following 60 countries were categorized as high income economies as of 2007:

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


IMF advanced economy list:

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

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

Second World

The term "Second World" is a phrase that was used to describe the Communist states within the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. Along with "First World" and "Third World", the term has been used to divide the nations of Earth into three broad categories. The term has largely fallen out of use since the end of the Cold War. The other two 'worlds' are still widely talked about, although "First World" is now deprecated for the more politically correct "developed country" and "Third World" has been replaced with "developing country". Many "Second World" countries are now considered part of the "First World". These countries include Russia, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Alternatively, First World countries may be defined as having developed market economies, Second World as having developed planned economies, and Third World as having developing economies that may follow either the market or the planned model. The fall of communism and the end of most planned economics has also made this distinction largely moot.

Additionally, the term is often used incorrectly, to describe a moderately developed country. This is most likely based on the misconception that the First World refers to the developed world, the Third World the developing world, and thus the Second World is an intermediate level between the two. To help with this problem, a newer term, Fourth World, was coined to refer to only the most impoverished nations, to distinguish more developed "third world" nations from completely undeveloped "third world" nations. However, the "Fourth World" is also used as a term for groups without their own nation, such as the Kurds and the Palestinians.


Countries of the Second World:

*Albania
*Armenia
*Azerbaijan
*Belarus
*Bosnia and Herzegovina
*Bulgaria
*Croatia
*Czech Republic
*Estonia
*Georgia
*East Germany
*Hungary
*Kazakhstan
*Kyrgyzstan
*Latvia
*Lithuania
*Macedonia
*Moldova
*Montenegro
*Poland
*Romania
*Russia
*Serbia
*Slovakia
*Slovenia
*Tajikistan
*Turkmenistan
*Ukraine
*Uzbekistan
*China
*Korea (North)
*Lao PDR
*Mongolia
*Viet Nam (North)

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Marwatone.

Third World

Third World is a name given to nations that are generally considered to be underdeveloped economically during the 20th century. The name Third World arose during the Cold War to refer to nations that did not belong to the First and Second Worlds. While there is debate over the appropriateness of the term, and no alternative is without detractors, the term is one embraced by many Third World nations themselves, particularly in the Non-Aligned Movement.


Etymology:

The economist and demographer Alfred Sauvy, in an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur, August 14, 1952, coined the term Third World in referring to countries currently called either "developing" or "under-developed", especially in Latin America, Africa, Oceania, and Asia, that were unaligned with either the Communist Soviet bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the Cold War (1945–1989). Today, Third World is synonymous with all countries in the developing world, regardless of their geopolitical alliances.

Third World was a reference to the Tiers État, the (Third Estate), the commoners of France before and during the French Revolution, opposed to the priests and nobles who composed the First Estate and the Second Estate. Like the third estate, wrote Sauvy, the Third World has nothing, and "wants to be something", implying that the Third World is exploited (as was the third estate) and that its destiny is revolutionary. Moreover, it conveyed the second concept of political non-alignment with neither the industrialized Capitalist bloc nor the industrialized Communist bloc.


History:

The term "third world" was first intended to refer to the way those countries were discovered and because most of them were born as colonies of more powerful nations before they became independent nations. The term later on became popular as a way to denominate countries that are still in the process of developing. In the colonial era, Western imperialists propped up these countries. Once imperialism ended, these countries were left to take care of themselves, something most colonial powers never allowed. These countries were left to face the challenges of nation and state-building on their own for the first time.

As European colonies in Africa, Asia, Americas, and Oceania gained their independence they commonly experienced widespread poverty, high birthrates, and economic dependence upon their former colonial masters. After World War II, the capitalist Western and the communist Eastern blocs fought to expand their spheres of influence to the Third World. The military and intelligence services of the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. worked secretly and publicly to influence Third World governments, with relative success.

The term Third World became popular usage during the Cold War when many poor nations adopted it in describing themselves as aligned with neither N.A.T.O. nor the U.S.S.R., but instead composed an unaligned Third World. In that context, the First World denoted the U.S. and its anti-Communist allies, concomitantly, Second World denoted the "Eastern Bloc" — the U.S.S.R. and its communist and socialist allies.

For the most part, Third World did not include China. Politically, the Third World emerged at the Bandung Conference (1955), which established the Non-Aligned Movement. Numerically, the Third World dominates the United Nations, but is so culturally and economically diverse that its political cohesion is hypothetical. The petroleum-rich countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, etc.) and the new industrial countries (India, China, Malaysia, Philippines, Brazil, Mexico etc.) have little in common with poor countries (Haiti, Chad, Afghanistan, etc.).


Countries of the Third World:

*Angola
*Bangladesh
*Belarus
*Benin
*Bhutan
*Burkina Faso
*Burundi
*Cambodia
*Cape Verde
*Central African Republic
*Chad
*Comoros
*Cuba
*Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire)
*Djibouti
*Equatorial Guinea
*Eritrea
*Ethiopia
*Gambia
*Guinea
*Guinea Bissau
*Haiti
*India
*Iraq
*Iran
*Kiribati
*Lao People's Democratic Republic(Lao PDR)
*Lesotho
*Liberia
*Libya
*Madagascar
*Malawi
*Maldives
*Mali
*Mauritania
*Mozambique
*Myanmar
*Nepal
*Niger
*Pakistan
*Rwanda
*Samoa
*Sao Tome and Principe
*Saudi Arabia
*Sierra Leone
*Solomon Islands
*Somalia
*Sudan
*Tanzania
*Timor-Leste
*Togo
*Tunisia
*Turkmenistan
*Tuvalu
*Uganda
*United Republicof Tanzania
*Uzbekistan
*Vanuatu
*Vietnam
*Yemen
*Zambia
*Zimbabwe

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Marwatone.