Terms that describe nations of the world that are considered more economically and technologically advanced.
The Central Intelligence Agency’s 2013-14 World Factbook lists the following as “developed countries”: 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, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States.
The terms developed countries and developed world are generally considered to be more current and accurate than First World.
In an alternative classification system, the World Health Organization divides countries into four income groups (low, lower-middle, upper-middle and high) based on the World Bank list of analytical income classification of economies.
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