A developed country is one which has a high income per person and high standards of living. In developed countries, a large proportion of people are employed in manufacturing and service industries, such as banking and leisure. A developing country, by contrast, is one with a low income per person and poor health care, education and nutrition. In developing countries, most people are employed in farming or mining. International development is a term that means both the process by which developing countries can work towards becoming developed ones—and the measure of their progress.

Indicators

There are many ways of measuring a country's development. Its economic wealth can be measured by its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is defined as the value of all the goods and services produced there, including those produced by foreign-owned firms. Sometimes this is given as a "per capita" (per head of population) figure, but this is likely to be misleading because wealth is generally not shared out equally amongst a country's population.
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Another way of measuring a country's development is to look at social indicators instead. These include: life expectancy, birth and death rates, infant mortality, the proportion of children receiving primary education and whether equal opportunities exist for women. Again, there are likely to be sizeable differences within countries.

​​​​​​​One country may be classified as highly developed when using one indicator, but less developed when using another. For this reason, more sophisticated measures have been introduced.

One way to make PPP more accurate is to compare prices of the same good sold in most countries. The Big Mac Index, for example, compares the prices of a Big Mac burger in McDonald's restaurants worldwide. The Big Mac is a standard product found in many countries. The costs of producing it includes local ingredients (e.g. beef, bread, lettuce and cheese), labour, rent and transport costs—so the local price should reflect this. However in some countries the Big Mac is not the "cheap" meal it is in the West, but a luxury.

Possibly the most accurate measure of a country's progress on the international development scale is the Human Development Index (HDI). The nearer a country's HDI is to 1.0, the higher its level of development. The index was devised by by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq and Indian economist Amartya Sen in 1990.

​​​​​​​The HDI combines three different measures: life expectancy at birth, number of years of schooling, and a version of GDP called Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. The GNI measure is calculated according to PPP.
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North-South divide

The North-South divide is one way of describing, broadly, the geographical location of the world's developed and developing countries. The North includes North America, Europe and developed countries of East Asia and Oceania. The South consists of Africa, Latin America and developing countries of Asia. 
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The North, which has one quarter of the world's population, earns four-fifths of income earned anywhere in the world. About 90% of all manufacturing industries are owned by or located in the North. In general terms, the South—three quarters of the world population—serves as a source for raw materials (including crops and minerals) for the industries owned by the countries of the North.

UN Development Goals

In an effort to reduce the extremes of inequality between North and South, in 2000 the United Nations introduced what it called Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)—all of which were to be achieved by 2015. These goals were: to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; to achieve primary education worldwide; to promote equality of the sexes and empower women; to reduce infant mortality; to improve the health of woman during pregnancy and childbirth; to fight HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; to ensure environmental sustainability; to develop "global partnership for development".

G7 and BRICS

The Group of Seven (G7) are the seven leading industrial nations of the world. These nations—the United States, Japan, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy and Canada (plus the European Union, a "non-enumerated member")—account for around 44% of the world’s GDP. A forum for discussion, it is widely considered to wield huge international influence, but it has been criticized for appearing to represent the interests of only the world's advanced economies.

Established as an alternative to the G7 bloc, BRICS is a group of ten countries. They are, as of 2025: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Together, they represent nearly half the world's population. BRICS ​​​​​​is an acronym, a name made up by the initials of the original members (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). The term BRICS+ is sometimes used to reflect the new membership. The wealth of the BRICS countries has risen by 356% between 1990 and 2019. Their share of world GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) is 35.6%. The group is, however, economically dominated by China, which has about 70% of the BRICS total GDP.

​​​​​​​An additional nine countries, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda and Uzbekistan, are "partner countries".

Objectives and challenges

In order for a country to develop it must achieve a number of objectives. It needs to have a strong and stable government; its economy must be less dependent on agriculture and become based more on manufacturing and services, with a focus on exports; its workforce must become competitive workforce; profits should be invested both for the benefit of its economy and the well-being and education of its population.

​​​​​​​A developing country may, however, be held back from achieving these objectives by a number of factors: climatic and other environmental hazards; a shortage of natural resources, a lack of access to sea ports; corruption; war; disease; overpopulation; discrimination against women.

Development assistance

The governments of many industrialized countries (along with other individuals and organizations) offer developing countries financial or technical assistance or investment—a vital factor in their development. Between them, the United States, Japan and Europe spend more than $100 billion each year on development assistance. Added to these are contributions made by private citizens, charities and organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. China, India, Brazil, Qatar and Kuwait are also significant providers of assistance to developing countries.
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The rise of China

China has developed extremely rapidly as an industrial nation over the last few decades. This growth has raised hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and has resulted in China becoming one of the world’s major manufacturing countries. China produces and exports huge quantities of textiles, clothing and other manufactured goods each year. It is now the world’s largest exporter of goods, the world's largest economy by PPP and its second largest economy (after the USA) by GDP (Gross Domestic Product).

China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI or, in Chinese, yi dai yi lu) has been described as a 21st century Silk Road. Announced in 2013 and launched officially in 2017, it is made up of a “belt” of overland corridors and a maritime “road” of shipping lanes, connecting China with around 70 countries in other parts of Asia, the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, and Africa. As of December 2023, 149 countries are members.

Italy, a G7 country, joined the project in 2019. Its Adriatic port, Trieste, linked by road and rail to the rest of Western Europe, became the western end point of the maritime "road". Italy withdrew in 2023, but other European countries such as Greece, Portugal and Poland, have joined the project.

​​​​​​​China’s multi-billion dollar project involves loans and investment from Chinese banks to BRI countries in what are called infrastructure projects. These include: ports, skyscrapers, railways, roads, airports, dams and power stations. Most projects are built by Chinese construction companies.
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In 2015, China announced plans for a third component of BRI: the "Digital Silk Road". This project has two main parts. Firstly, China will provide upgraded internet connections. This will include laying new undersea fibre-optic cables linking China with countries to the west. It will also involve installing broadband in those BRI countries where it is under-developed. Secondly, China’s satellite navigation network will be expanded to match the US-owned GPS system.