# Which land border has the biggest difference in living standards? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 12, 2012, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631 "2012-02-12T21:52:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/41 "2012-02-13T13:14:26Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > That might not be your only misconception about Bhutan. 🙂 To clarify: Bhutan and Burma barely come within 200 miles of each other. Re: boundaries being visible from space, the border between [Lesotho and South Africa](http://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=-29.88709,27.171249&spn=0.301236,0.430527&t=k&z=11) stands out pretty clearly, too. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/42 "2012-02-13T14:38:47Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > These were the 1st two I thought of. Good lord, people, you do all realize that equating Mexico with Tijuana and Juarez is like equating the USA with Cabrini Green? ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2012, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/43 "2012-02-13T23:41:28Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Good lord, people, you do all realize that equating Mexico with Tijuana and Juarez is like equating the USA with Cabrini Green? That does raise a related question, though I’m not sure how you could qualify it properly. The habitations in Libya and Niger closest to each other probably are less dissimilar than the average values used. And there certainly do exist places — like Juarez — where the difference of merely crossing the border brings a stark contrast in living conditions. Although such disparity exists even within cities, sometimes with even just a single road separating them. ---
**Author:** ![isaiahrobinson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@isaiahrobinson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/isaiahrobinson)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/44 "2012-02-14T00:01:39Z")
> [@panamajack](#): > > That does raise a related question, though I’m not sure how you could qualify it properly. The habitations in Libya and Niger closest to each other probably are less dissimilar than the average values used. And there certainly do exist places — like Juarez — where the difference of merely crossing the border brings a stark contrast in living conditions. Although such disparity exists even within cities, sometimes with even just a single road separating them. The point about Libya is a good one, and it applies to a lot of the country pairings considered: countries like Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Qatar, Angola and arguably even South Africa technically may have high GDPs-per-capita but it’s concentrated in the hands of very few, often because of oil wealth, so the average settlement won’t be all that different from those in the poor countries they’re being compared to. That’s why I think the best answers are South Korea/North Korea and Israel/Palestine, where living standards are fairly evenly spread across the two sets of populations. There are suburbs of Seoul in South Korea which would be a short drive from towns in North Korea, yet I imagine the difference between them is stunning. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/45 "2012-02-24T23:11:33Z")
[Detroit \<-\> Grosse Pointe Park](http://g.co/maps/sv7sz). Detroit per capita income in 2000: $14,717 Grosse Pointe Park per capita income in 2000: $42,051 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/46 "2012-02-25T00:37:32Z")
Thailand/Cambodia was my first thought. I’ve crossed into Cambodia from Thailand. The Cambodian border town of Poipet is very much in the running for the title of Armpit of the Universe. ---
**Author:** ![Vicullum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/6de8d8/32.png) [@Vicullum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vicullum)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/47 "2012-02-25T01:01:10Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Thailand/Cambodia was my first thought. I’ve crossed into Cambodia from Thailand. The Cambodian border town of Poipet is very much in the running for the title of Armpit of the Universe. I actually made the same crossing last year. While Poipet is definitely a shithole, I didn’t think Aranyaprathet on the other side of the border was _that_ much better. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/48 "2012-02-26T02:26:53Z")
> [@Vicullum](#): > > I actually made the same crossing last year. While Poipet is definitely a shithole, I didn’t think Aranyaprathet on the other side of the border was _that_ much better. Although quite a few places in Cambodia are very nice, Thailand gets much more better from Aranyaprathet than Cambodia does from Poipet. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/49 "2012-02-26T02:30:31Z")
I’d say it’s most likely the border between Scotland and England. Driving north, everything seems normal, then you stop at a town past the border and go into a chippy and then… the horror. The horror. ---
**Author:** ![aaaa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@aaaa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaaa)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/50 "2012-02-26T02:57:09Z")
Zimbabwe and Botswana: > **[List of bordering countries with greatest relative differences in GDP (PPP) per capita](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bordering_countries_with_greatest_differences_in_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_person)** > > This is a list of bordering countries with the greatest relative differences in GDP (PPP) per person; specifically those pairs of neighbouring countries where the richer country is at least twice as wealthy on a per capita basis than the poorer. These statistics however do not consider differences in other economic indicators that measure welfare, such as their human development index, or inequality within countries. > The greatest cases of inequity typically would involve an impoverished and pol... ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/51 "2012-02-26T23:45:51Z")
I thought this was dramatic. Driving between Grosse Pointe and Detroit, take a look how quickly it transforms after the 1:00 mark. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/xPvMU6i46Ic/hqdefault.jpg "Grosse Point to Detroit") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPvMU6i46Ic) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631/52 "2012-02-26T23:54:05Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > I’d say it’s most likely the border between Scotland and England. Driving north, everything seems normal, then you stop at a town past the border and go into a chippy and then… the horror. The horror. Oi! What’s wrong with a deep-fried macaroni pie? 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-land-border-has-the-biggest-difference-in-living-standards/612631.md?page=2)