I noticed this thread just now, and as I expected, it degenerated into trivialities, everybody saying why a particular country is not developed. The conclusion seems to be that no country in the world is developed. Then why do we talk of developed and developing countries?
Which really emphasizes the point I made in the other thread. Everybody is expressing their opinion as to which country is developed and which isn’t, without much concrete evidence.
Well, to me, the main criteria is per capita income or per capita GDP. There are some other minor criteria (industrialization, Human development Index etc.), but per capita income is the major criteria. You usually cannot have industrialization or high Human Development Index without also high per capita income or per capita GDP.
Anyway, I go by the International monetary Fund list of developed and developing countries. Anything else is pure speculation, personal opinion without any evidence.
Developed country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Developing country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anyway, here is one specific definition (there are other, less specific definitions).
In its most recent classification, economies are divided using 2008 Gross National Income per capita. In 2008, countries with GNI per capita below US$11,905 were considered developing.