Download Country Classifications

A
north/south
model of
classifying
countries
Models for Grouping Countries
in the World
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Place the following countries in a group (1-5)
based on their overall success, with 1 being the
best and 5 being the worst.

Canada, Algeria, Brazil, England, Russia, China,
Japan, Egypt, Israel, Germany, Argentina, Portugal,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq, Australia, Poland, Sweden,
Turkey, Saudi Arabia
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Most countries can be grouped
according to their level of social
and economic development
More Developed = Higher
Ranking
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTznEIZRkLg
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Social Development: level of education,
health care, legal system, life expectancy, rate
of infant mortality, etc.

Economic Development: GDP (Gross Domestic
Product), ratio of cars to people, per capita
electrical power capacity, etc.
Terms such as Developed, Newly Industrialized and
Developing have been used to group countries together based
on similar social and economic development criteria.

1.) Developed Countries
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Socially and economically
I.E. Canada, the US, Germany, France, Japan.
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2.) Newly Industrialized Countries:
Identified based on economic characteristics
 In transition from agriculture base to industrialized based.
 I.E. India, China, Brazil and Mexico.

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3.) Developing Countries
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Moving towards progressive social/economic status
I.E. Bangladesh, Haiti, Ethiopia, etc…
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Too general
Does not account for history
Can we have a world full of first world countries?

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1.) First World Countries (Developed
countries.
I.E. Canada, US, Germany, France,
Netherlands, etc…)
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2.) Second World Countries:
Those that were or are communist countries.
Similar social development, lacking
economic development. (or vise versa)
I.E. China, Cuba, Russia, etc…
• Corrupt governments
• Communism works in theory but not
in practice
• Wealth is never evenly distributed
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3.) Third World Countries (Newly Industrialized)
I.E. India, China, Brazil, etc…
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4.) Fourth World Countries

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Early stages of development
I.E. Rwanda, Swaziland, etc.
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5.) Fifth World Countries
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Little evidence of any transition beginning
Often affected by war, drought, corruption, and natural
disasters
I.E. Haiti, Afghanistan, Congo, Somalia, etc.