what is second world 
the outdated term second world included countries that were once controlled by the soviet union second world countries were centrally planned economies and one party states notably the use of the term second world to refer to soviet countries largely fell out of use in the early 1990s shortly after the end of the cold war 1but the term second world has also been used to cover countries that are more stable and more developed than offensive term third world countries but less stable and less developed than first world countries examples of second world countries by this definition include almost all of latin and south america turkey thailand south africa and many others investors sometimes refer to second world countries that appear to be headed toward first world status as emerging markets instead 2some countries could be considered second world by either of these two definitions understanding second worldby the first definition some examples of second world countries include bulgaria the czech republic hungary poland romania albania russia and china among others 3with regard to the second definition according to geo strategist and london school of economics doctorate parag khanna approximately 100 countries exist that are neither first world oecd nor third world least developed or ldc countries khanna emphasizes that within the same country there can be a coexistence of first and second second and third or first and third world characteristics 4 a country s major metropolitan areas may exhibit first world characteristics for example while its rural areas exhibit third world characteristics china displays extraordinary wealth in beijing and shanghai yet many of its non urban regions are still deemed developing key criteria in defining world segregationscriteria such as unemployment rates rates of infant mortality and life expectancy standards of living and distribution of income can be used to determine a country s status even within the united states some argue that although the majority of the nation is fully developed certain places are stagnant in their growth even regressing to a status closer to a developing nation definition mit economist peter temin argues that the united states has even regressed to a developing nation status temin believes that close to 80 of the entire u s population is part of a low wage sector laden with debts and facing fewer possibilities for growth 5