How many third world countries are there

Finally, "Third World" countries were countries that remained neutral and allied with neither side. However, that meaning changed after the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in the early s. Under this modernized definition, Third World countries are those that display economic, social, political, and environmental issues such as high poverty rates, economic instability, and lack of essential human resources compared to the rest of the world.

This shifting definition has led to significant confusion as to which countries could correctly be called Third World today. However, none of these nations would be considered Third World under the modern definition—they're all too prosperous. In some third world countries, there is extreme or absolute poverty, in which people are so poor that they are at risk of dying.

In many African countries , extreme poverty is quite common, and is often caused by famine , drought , or armed conflict. There are third world countries, such as China , where extreme poverty is exceedingly rare, and there is a growing middle class, but much of the population still lives in poverty. Most third world countries suffer from a lack of effective governance.

In some cases, the government of the third world country in question does not have very effective control over its territory, and its institutions are very weak. In the Western African country of Mali , for example, much of the northern part of the country is controlled by ethnic and Islamic fundamentalist militias.

It is they, not the Malian government, who have the authority in the northern region of the country. In other cases, a government may have effective control over its territory, but there is still poor governance in terms of the rule of law. In practice, however, China is a one-party dictatorship where human rights are routinely violated and dissent routinely suppressed. Thus, it is as if the constitution does not exist. Third world countries tend to be politically unstable. First World Countries Second World countries were the Eastern bloc of communist-socialist states.

Third World countries were any other country not aligned with either power…. Second World Countries The most underdeveloped countries in the world are referred to as the least developed countries or LDCs…. Here are the 10 countries with the lowest human development indexes:.