Rich countries and poor countries

Few issues are as controversial as the differentiation of rich and poor countries . A reality that has its support in the economy, but that can also be perceived in other areas, absolutely related.

Rich country

A rich country can be considered one that not only has a large amount of natural resources, but also those that have an economic exploitation that allows such categorization. A rich country in a capitalist system tends to have high rates of human development, high levels of industrialization, a good quality of life, and extensive educational possibilities.

Human development Index

This is an excellent socio-economic indicator to take into account when a country is rich. Functions such as education, health and income are taken into account here. The numerical reference is simple enough: it goes from 0 to 1 and the closer to 1 it is, the higher the Human Development Index.

The Human Development Index connects with other indicative elements of a rich country. If it is high, there are good levels of education, health, and per capita income is high. Therefore, this will have an absolute impact on issues such as the death and birth rate: if health is good people live longer, as well as, at least in a trend in many of these countries (it is not the case of the United States), the birth rate is somewhat lower.

The low birth rate in rich countries can be linked to ideas or projects that can delay or reduce the time of childbearing. Likewise, improvements in the health system may imply greater resources when it comes to having the necessary material for sex education and access to a multitude of contraceptive methods.

High levels of industrialization

From an economic point of view, high levels of industrialization may be related to employment and employment with a generation of economically higher lives. Per capita income rises before a reality that gives a good role to companies.

It is important to emphasize that state interventionism can vary in different countries (it is not the same in England as in Germany) and even the concept of business can evolve to trade and the production of information (what is called the quaternary sector); but it does not obliterate the importance of the private sector to rich nations.

High Gross Domestic Product

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is defined, as a macroeconomic magnitude, as an expression of the monetary value of the final demand production and services of a country or region at a given time. Naturally, in countries considered rich this same is usually high.

Naturally, it is closely linked to another indicator of economic potential such as per capita income, which we already mentioned and is the average salary per individual. In rich countries the distribution of income is usually fairly distributed or homogeneous.

Favorable trade balance and position in the world

Most of the rich countries in the world have a favorable position in the world, precisely because of their economic reality. In this sense, they have a favorable trade balance because many of them import primary products (let’s think of agricultural ones) and develop to export processed products, which historically has been known as manufacturing.

To this we must add that they are usually pioneers in technology and science, seen as priorities. This also translates into superiority and wealth from an economic point of view, as well as an improvement in the quality of life.

Examples from rich countries

Some rich countries have an ancient history and even developed different types of colonialism in moments of development of the capitalist system. France, England, later Germany, the United States or Japan are good examples.

However, there are rich nations that do not have a long history nor were they protagonists of projects of a high colonial scale such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand (the three nations continue to recognize Elizabeth II as their queen).

Poor country

A poor country can be considered one that has low levels in key economic indices such as GDP, the per capita index or the Human Development Index. And this is independent of the amount of natural resources it has, as Argentina can be an excellent example.

Human development Index

The Human Development Index is also an excellent indicator for when a country is poor. If the numbering goes from 0 to 1, these countries will be relatively close to the first. And that translates into low levels of health, education, nutrition, quality of life, among others.

Likewise, the birth rate in poor countries is usually high, because there is no control in this regard, which is linked to existential projects, sex education and an appropriate health system (it can be somewhat simplifying).

Mortality rates are higher, which can be analyzed, in reverse, as a lower life expectancy. You live worse, you eat worse and you die sooner. We are talking about countries with social problems of famine, lack of basic resources such as access to water or decent housing, in addition to the concomitant misery and unemployment.

Low levels of industrialization

A poor country tends to have very low levels of industrialization, emphasizing the production of raw materials and importing manufactured goods. Many theories see this reality as a consequence of late exploitations and decolonizations, where the traces of underdevelopment somehow remained.

Low Gross Domestic Product

The GDP of all poor countries is absolutely low, if we take into account that it is an indicator that represents in monetary value the sum of goods and services in final demand, in a given time.

A low GDP is usually closely related to equally low levels of income or income per capita, in countries where there is usually a strong inequality or lack of homogeneous distribution of income.

Unfavorable trade balance and position in the world

Trade balances, in a basic sense, are not favorable in poor countries. We are talking about fragile economies, with zero growth and many times subjected to different debt mechanisms.

The position in the world of poor countries, on the other hand, will be to be behind, not to represent strong positions in all kinds of international associations. This entails different levels of submission.

Examples from poor countries

There are numerous poor countries on a continent such as Africa, examples being Sudan, Nigeria, Tanzania, Togo, Burkina Faso, among others. In America, Venezuela or Haiti can be mentioned as paradigmatic examples. In Asia, Afghanistan, Laos, Burma or Nepal can perfectly fall into that category; the same as Samoa or Tuvalu in Oceania.