what is a developed economy 
a developed economy is typically characteristic of a developed country with a relatively high level of economic growth and security standard criteria for evaluating a country s level of development are income per capita or per capita gross domestic product the level of industrialization the general standard of living and the amount of technological infrastructure noneconomic factors such as the human development index hdi which quantifies a country s levels of education literacy and health into a single figure can also be used to evaluate an economy or the degree of development understanding a developed economythe most common metric used to determine if an economy is developed or developing is per capita gross domestic product gdp although no strict level exists for an economy to be considered either developing or developed some economists consider 12 000 to 15 000 per capita gdp to be sufficient for developed status while others do not consider a country developed unless its per capita gdp is above 25 000 or 30 000 the u s per capita gdp in 2019 was 65 111 for countries that are difficult to categorize economists turn to other factors to determine development status standard of living measures such as the infant mortality rate and life expectancy are useful although there are no set boundaries for these measures either however most developed economies suffer fewer than 10 infant deaths per 1 000 live births and their citizens live to be 75 or older on average a high per capita gdp alone does not confer developed economy status without other factors for example the united nations still considers qatar with one of the world s highest per capita gdp in 2021 at around 62 000 a developing economy because the nation has extreme income inequality a lack of infrastructure and limited educational opportunities for non affluent citizens 1examples of countries with developed economies include the united states canada and most of western europe including the united kingdom and france the human development indexthe un s human development index hdi looks at three standards of living criteria literacy rates access to education and access to health care and quantifies this data into a standardized figure between zero and one most developed countries have hdi figures above 0 8 the united nations in its annual hdi rankings reports that in 2020 norway had the world s highest hdi at 0 957 the united states ranked 17th at 0 926 the top 10 countries in the hdi index were norway ireland switzerland hong kong iceland germany sweden australia netherlands and denmark niger had the lowest human development index score at 0 394 out of 189 countries 2developing economiesterms such as emerging countries least developed countries and developing countries are commonly used to refer to countries that do not enjoy the same level of economic security industrialization and growth as developed countries the term third world country to describe a state is today considered archaic and offensive the united nations conference on trade and development notes that the world s least developed countries are deemed highly disadvantaged in their development process many of them for geographical reasons and face more than other countries the risk of failing to come out of poverty it is often claimed by proponents of globalization that globalization is helping to lift developing economies out of poverty and onto a path of improved standards of living higher wages and use of modern technology these benefits have primarily been witnessed in the asia pacific region though globalization has not taken root in all developing economies it has shown to improve the economies in the ones that it has that being said globalization does come with drawbacks as well that need to be assessed when foreign investments flow into a developing economy 