What makes a country a “Third World” country?
Historically speaking, countries that did not belong to the “first world” (US-led Western Camp) or the “second world” (USSR and its allies) comprised the “third world.” But after Cold War, i.e. the disapperance of the second world as a meaningful category, the notion of third world began exclusively to refer to the “less developed countries” LDCs, which are characterized primarily by their low level of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita (other criteria include life expectancy, education, energy consumption, population growth etc.) In order to differentiate the very poor countries (e.g. many Central African countries) from the avarage third world countries that are relatively wealthier (e.g.
