A developed country, or advanced country, is a country that has a high quality of life, developed economy, and advanced technological infrastructure relative to other less industrialized nations. Most commonly, the criteria for evaluating the degree of economic development are: gross domestic product (GDP), gross national income (GNI), per capita income, level of industrialization, amount of widespread infrastructure and general standard of living.Developed Economy Definition . Investopedia (16 April 2010). Retrieved 12 July 2013. Which criteria are to be used and which countries can be classified as being developed are subjects of debate. Different definitions of developed countries are provided by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the World Bank, the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Paris Club and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), while the Human Development Index is used to rank countries on the composite basis of life expectancy, education, and income per capita.
Developed countries have generally more advanced post-industrial economies, meaning the tertiary sector provides more wealth than the secondary sector. They are contrasted with developing countries, which are in the process of industrialisation or are pre-industrial and almost entirely agrarian, some of which might fall into the category of least developed countries. , advanced economies constitute 57.3% of global GDP based on nominal value and 41.1% of global GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP) according to the IMF.
Definition and criteria Economic criteria have tended to dominate discussions. One such criterion is the income per capita; countries with the high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita would thus be described as developed countries. Another economic criterion is industrialisation; countries in which the tertiary and quaternary sectors of industry dominate would thus be described as developed. More recently, another measure, the Human Development Index (HDI), which combines an economic measure, national income, with other measures, indices for life expectancy and education has become prominent. This criterion would define developed countries as those with a very high (HDI) rating. The index, however, does not take into account several factors, such as the net wealth per capita or the relative quality of goods in a country. This situation tends to lower the ranking of some of the most advanced countries, such as the G7 members and others.
According to the United Nations Statistics Division: There is no established convention for the designation of "developed" and "developing" countries or areas in the United Nations system.
And it notes that: The designations "developed" and "developing" are intended for statistical convenience and do not necessarily express a judgement about the stage reached by a particular country or area in the development process.
Nevertheless, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) considers that this categorization can continue to be applied: The developed economies broadly comprise Northern America and Europe, Israel, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.
Similar terms
Terms linked to the concept developed country include "advanced country", "industrialized country", "more developed country" (MDC), "more economically developed country" (MEDC), "Global North country", "first world country", and "post-industrial country". The term industrialized country may be somewhat ambiguous, as industrialisation is an ongoing process that is hard to define. The first industrialized country was the United Kingdom, followed by Belgium. Later it spread further to Germany, United States, France and other Western European countries. According to some economists such as Jeffrey Sachs, however, the current divide between the developed and developing world is largely a phenomenon of the 20th century.
Mathis Wackernagel calls the binary labeling of countries as "neither descriptive nor explanatory. It is merely a thoughtless and destructive endorsement of GDP fetish. In reality, there are not two types of countries, but over 200 countries, all faced with the same laws of nature, yet each with unique features."
A 2021 analysis proposes the term emerged to describe markets, economies, or countries that have graduated from emerging market status, but have not yet reached the level equivalent to developed countries. Multinational corporations from these emerging markets present unique patterns of overseas expansion and knowledge acquisition from foreign countries.
Economy lists by various criteria
Human Development Index (HDI)
The UN HDI is a statistical measure that gauges an economy's level of human development. While there is a strong correlation between having a high HDI score and being a prosperous economy, the UN points out that the HDI accounts for more than income or productivity. Unlike GDP per capita or per capita income, the HDI takes into account how income is turned "into education and health opportunities and therefore into higher levels of human development."
Since 1990, Norway (2001–2006, 2009–2019), Japan (1990–1991 and 1993), Canada (1992 and 1994–2000) and Iceland (2007–2008) have had the highest HDI score.
The following countries in the year 2023 are considered to be of "very high human development":
+ Rank Country or territory HDI value %annual growth(2010–2023)1 scope=row 0.972 2 scope=row 0.970 scope=row 4 scope=row 0.962 5 scope=row 0.959 scope=row 7 scope=row 0.958 8 scope=row 0.955 scope=row 10 scope=row 0.951 11 scope=row 0.949 12 scope=row 0.948 13 scope=row 0.946 scope=row 15 scope=row 0.940 16 scope=row 0.939 17 scope=row 0.938 scope=row scope=row 20 scope=row 0.937 21 scope=row 0.931 22 scope=row 0.930 23 scope=row 0.925 24 scope=row 0.924 25 scope=row 0.922 26 scope=row 0.920 27 scope=row 0.919 28 scope=row 0.918 29 scope=row 0.915 scope=row scope=row 32 scope=row 0.913 scope=row 34 scope=row 0.908 35 scope=row 0.906 36 scope=row 0.905 37 scope=row 0.900 38 scope=row 0.899 39 scope=row 0.895 40 scope=row 0.890 41 scope=row 0.889 scope=row 43 scope=row 0.886 44 scope=row 0.880 45 scope=row 0.878 46 scope=row 0.870 47 scope=row 0.865 48 scope=row 0.862 scope=row 50 scope=row 0.858 51 scope=row 0.853 52 scope=row 0.852 53 scope=row 0.851 54 scope=row 0.848 55 scope=row 0.845 scope=row 57 scope=row 0.844 58 scope=row 0.840 59 scope=row 0.839 60 scope=row 0.837 scope=row 62 scope=row 0.833 scope=row 64 scope=row 0.832 65 scope=row 0.824 66 scope=row 0.820 67 scope=row 0.819 68 scope=row 0.815 69 scope=row 0.811 scope=row 71 scope=row 0.810 72 scope=row 0.807 73 scope=row 0.806 74 scope=row 0.804
WESP developed economies
According to the World Economic Situation and Prospects report by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), the following 37 countries are classified as "developed economies" as of January 2026:
31 countries in Europe:
two countries in North America:
two countries in Asia:
two countries in Oceania:
World Bank high-income economies
According to the World Bank, the following sovereign states and territories across are classified as "high-income economies", having a nominal GNI per capita in excess of $13,935 as of the 2025 fiscal year:
Non-sovereign entities appear in italics.
Development Assistance Committee members
There are 32 OECD member countries and the European Union—in the Development Assistance Committee (DAC),Peer reviews of DAC members – Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development . Oecd.org. Retrieved 22 October 2013. a group of the world's major donor countries that discusses issues surrounding development aid and poverty reduction in developing countries.DAC website >> "The DAC in Dates" , On the DAC's self-description, see the introductory letter. On other events, refer to the relevant section by date. The following OECD member countries are DAC members:
26 countries in Europe:
two countries in North America:
two countries in Asia:
two countries in Oceania:
one associate member:
IMF advanced economies
According to the International Monetary Fund, 43 countries and territories are officially listed as "advanced economies", with the addition of 6 microstates and dependencies listed by the CIA but omitted from the IMF version:
32 countries in Europe classified by the IMF, two sovereign entities and three territories listed by the CIA:
five countries and two territories in Asia:
two countries and one territory in the Americas classified by the IMF, one territory listed by the CIA :
two countries in Oceania:
d The CIA has modified an older version of the IMF's list of advanced economies, noting that it "would presumably also cover the following nine smaller countries of Andorra, Bermuda, Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Holy See, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and San Marino[...]". San Marino (2012), Andorra (2021) and Liechtenstein (2025) were later included in the IMF's list.
Paris Club members
There are 22 permanent members in the Paris Club (), a group of officials from major creditor countries whose role is to find coordinated and sustainable solutions to the payment difficulties experienced by debtor countries.
15 countries in Europe:
three countries in the Americas:
three countries in Asia:
one country in Oceania:
UNIDO high-income industrial economies
According to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), 48 countries and one territory are categorized as "high-income industrial economies". This classification, first implemented in 2022, is assigned to economies that have achieved a high national income through a development path resulting in high levels of industrialization. UNIDO determines this status by evaluating three core dimensions of the manufacturing sector: value added (manufacturing value added per capita), historical employment share, and the quality of exports (average exports of medium- and high-technology products). Previously, UNIDO's top-tier classification of "industrialized economies" included countries that were not high-income economies, e.g. Belarus and Malaysia.
34 countries in Europe:
six countries in Asia:
five countries and one territory in the Americas:
three countries in Oceania:
Comparative table Comparative table of countries with a "very high" human development (0.800 or higher), according to the UNDP; "developed" economies, according to the World Economic Situation and Prospects report by UNDESA; "high-income" economies, according to the World Bank; DAC members; "advanced" economies, according to the IMF; Paris Club members; and/or "high-income industrial economies", according to UNIDO.
Year of inclusion in brackets; non-sovereign entities in italics.