1 World War Between Which Country
Darios Uclaray
Are richer countries polluting more than poorer ones? What progress in poverty reduction has been made in countries affected by fragility and conflict? To help shed light how different groups of countries are doing, the World Bank categorizes countries based on various characteristics, such as geography, lending eligibility, fragility, and average level of income. When it comes to income , the World Bank divides the world's economies into four income groups: high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low.
The income classification is based on a measure of national income per person, or GNI per capita, calculated using the Atlas method. In 1978, the first World Development Report introduced groupings of "low income" and "middle income" countries using a threshold of $250 per capita income as threshold between the groups. In the 1983 WDR, the "middle income group" was split into "lower middle" and "upper middle" groups, and in 1989 a "high income" country definition was introduced.
As seen in the above chart, many countries' incomes have transcended the income group thresholds over time. Because most parts of the world have experienced considerable economic growth in recent decades, and the classification thresholds are held stable in real terms, there are now fewer low-income countries and more countries have gained middle or high-income status. Just since 2003, the number of low-income countries has nearly halved, declining from 66 to 31 in 2019. The number of high-income countries is currently 80, up from less than 50 in the 1990s. The number of middle-income countries is 107 (60 UMICs and 47 LMICs) and has not changed much as countries have transitioned both in and out of this group. The chart below summarizes the number of countries in each group over time.
The changes are even starker when looking at the share of the world population that live in each type of countries. The vast majority (75 percent) of people currently live in countries defined as lower or upper-middle income countries. As large countries, such as India and China, have transitioned from low income countries to middle income countries, the population shares have shifted dramatically. In the 1990s, more than 6 in 10 people of the world's population lived in low-income countries, while today it is just about 1 in 10.
With only a small share of the world currently classified as "low income" and as the thresholds not having changed since 1988 (in real terms), critics argue that these income groups are losing relevance, and are somewhat arbitrary and dated.
There are many ways of grouping economies and organizing analysis of development data, and the income classification is only one of many. Yet, the absolute nature of the thresholds, and the long history of the classification scheme, provide a useful way of tracking progress over time. And analysts can always select and analyze data for custom groupings using data from our Databank.
It is important to emphasize that the income classifications are intended to aggregate and analyze data for groups of similar economies. Among other things, income classifications are used in the WDI and SDG Atlas to shed light on the following questions:
Until recently, the World Bank only used the income classifications for analytical purposes, but they now also affect some operational policies. Starting on July 1, 2018, there are surcharges in IBRD loan pricing for high income countries as described in the Development Committee Paper "Sustainable Finance for Sustainable Development."
Sources: Narayan et al. (2022); World Bank.
Note: EMDEs = emerging market and developing economies; LICs = low-income countries. The figure shows the difference between the estimated average change in the Gini index in the COVID-19 scenario and the no-pandemic counterfactual scenario. The simulations estimate the changes in the income distribution of households in 2020 against a counterfactual 2020 income distribution that assumes the last pre-pandemic sectoral output growth forecast for 2020. The sample includes 34 countries. The simulations are based on country-specific sectoral growth projections and the Harmonized High-Frequency Phone Surveys data as of July 2021.
Sources: World Bank.
Note: EMDEs = emerging market and developing economies; LICs = low-income countries. Calculations based on the Harmonized High-Frequency Phone Surveys data from the COVID-19 Household Monitoring Dashboard for wave 1 in 2020. Response to survey question about children engaged in any education activities since school closures (percent of household with school age children who attended school before the pandemic), by income group (simple averages). Sample consists of 49 EMDEs, including 14 LICs.
A comprehensive strategy is needed to steer the global economy onto a more inclusive development path. Such a strategy needs to include measures to reduce both between-country and within-country inequality through national reforms and with support from the global community. This involves a rapid global rollout of vaccination and productivity-enhancing reforms in EMDEs to lower between-country inequality; fiscal support targeted at vulnerable population groups and measures to broaden access to education, health care, digital services and infrastructure; and assistance from the global community to resolve debt overhangs and to ensure an open and rules-based global trade and investment climate that nurtures faster productivity growth in EMDEs.
Please note: Regions inthis table include economies at all income levels. The term country, usedinterchangeably with economy, does not imply political independence but refersto any territory for which authorities report separate social or economicstatistics. Click here for information about how the World Bank classifies countries.
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Canada has an embassy in Washington, D.C., consulates general in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, 3 trade offices, and 14 Honorary Consuls. The United States maintains an embassy in Ottawa and consulates general across Canada.
It is estimated that around 400,000 people crossed the Canada-United States border every day and that there are about 800,000 Canadian citizens living in the United States. There are many Canadian Indigenous people and U.S. Native American Tribes whose communities and cultures span the border.
Canada and the United States are key allies and defence partners, and we collaborate closely to address international crises and to defend shared values abroad. Our mutual objectives of strengthening continental defence and safeguarding global peace and security have led to the close cooperation of our respective defence and national security agencies.
Our bilateral defence and national security relationship spans the full spectrum of cooperation, from shared defence of the continent; commitments to collective objectives through the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Five Eyes; intelligence sharing; defence materiel cooperation, and strong relationships between law enforcement agencies. Canada and the U.S. recently committed to accelerate NORAD modernization. In addition to announced investments in NORAD and the Canadian Armed Forces that support continental defence more broadly (including F-35 fighter jets and related infrastructure), Canada is collaborating with the U.S. to reduce violent extremism, child sex exploitation, cross-border smuggling, and firearms violence on both sides of the border; as well as deepen cybersecurity cooperation to improve the resiliency and protection of our critical infrastructure.
Canada and the U.S. cooperate closely on global security issues, including in Europe through NATO and by enhancing the capabilities of the Ukrainian security forces; and through the Global Coalition against Daesh in the Middle East. Canada and the U.S. also maintain a maritime presence and uphold sanctions in the Indo-Pacific region; as well as conduct illicit trafficking operations in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
For the better part of four decades, trade between Canada and the U.S. has been governed by a succession of free trade agreements, the most recent of which is the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), which entered into force in July 2020. CUSMA anchors our strong, balanced trading relationship with the United States and Mexico, built on resilient and effective supply chains across all key sectors of the economy.
Canada and the United States are close partners on climate and environmental action. By ensuring regulatory alignment across integrated sectors, Canada and the U.S. have strengthened economic ties and made significant advancements to reduce methane emissions, establish a critical minerals supply chain, advance the transition to zero-emission vehicles, and move toward a net-zero grid.
Canadian and U.S. also share goals for decarbonizing North American electricity production. Canada aims to achieve a net zero electricity system by 2035, with the U.S. striving to produce 100% non-emitting power by 2035. From a national security standpoint, the U.S. and Canada collaborate to protect the grid from cyber and other threats, enhance response and recovery efforts, and work toward creating a more secure and resilient future electric grid.
In the previous edition of U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective, we reported that people in the United States experience the worst health outcomes overall of any high-income nation.1 Americans are more likely to die younger, and from avoidable causes, than residents of peer countries.
For every metric we examine, we used the latest data available. This means that results for certain countries may reflect the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when mental health conditions were surging, essential health services were disrupted, and patients may not have received the same level of care.3
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