# 3rd World Nations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2002, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3rd-world-nations/105986 "2002-04-27T18:02:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wdc33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@wdc33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wdc33)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3rd-world-nations/105986/1 "2002-04-27T18:02:31Z")
What does it mean to be a “3rd World” nation? Is the U.S. a “1st” World Nation? Are there any “2nd” World Nations? What is this 1st, and 3rd thing all about? ---
**Author:** ![foxfiregrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3da27b/32.png) [@foxfiregrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foxfiregrrl)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3rd-world-nations/105986/2 "2002-04-27T18:16:21Z")
My interpetation of the phrase (I’m sure someone will come in here with exacts) was that there are three different types of nations. Developed nations (like the US), Developing nations (I think this would refer to some South American countries, I don’t have a real good example) and undeveloped nations (this would probably refer to a lot of African countries). The third world countries are the undeveloped nations. So I suppose first world nations would be the developed countries, and the second world countries would be the nations currently developing. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3rd-world-nations/105986/3 "2002-04-27T18:21:15Z")
The phrase is of cold war origins, and comes from the French phrase Le Tiers Monde - the “second world” no longer exists, as it reffered to the Communist Bloc countries. From [http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/General/ThirdWorld\_def.html](http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/General/ThirdWorld_def.html) : > [@](#): > > The expression third world was used at the 1955 conference of Afro-Asian countries held in Bandung, Indonesia. In 1956 a group of social scientists associated with Sauvy’s National Institute of Demographic Studies, in Paris, published a book called Le Tiers-Monde. Three years later, the French economist Francois Perroux launched a new journal, on problems of underdevelopment, with the same title. By the end of the 1950’s the term was frequently employed in the French media to refer to the underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and Latin America. ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3rd-world-nations/105986/4 "2002-04-27T18:49:53Z")
**yabob** has it right. The most common designations used these days are “developed” and “developing” countries. “Developing” has a strangely optimistic ring to it, as if “development” were inevitable (or pessimistic, if “development” refers to some neoliberal model). Sometimes the categories “developed,” “less developed,” and “least developed” are used. The United Nations has categorized 49 countries as “least developed.” ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3rd-world-nations/105986/5 "2002-04-27T19:11:11Z")
Correct. The “First World” originally meant the industrialized democracies of North America, Western Europe, and Australasia; the “Second World” was the industrialized Communist countries of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The “Third World” was everybody else - undeveloped, and often non-aligned. By extension, sometimes the term “Fourth World” has been used for the least developed countries, some of which, like Somalia, Afganistan, and Liberia, have actively gone backwards. ---
**Author:** ![Beruang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@Beruang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beruang)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2002, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3rd-world-nations/105986/6 "2002-04-28T06:47:34Z")
As usual, Cecil has already addressed this: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2\_271.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_271.html)