How does the World Bank classify countries? – World Bank Data Help Desk (2024)

FAQs

How does the World Bank classify countries? – World Bank Data Help Desk? ›

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

The World Bank classifies economies for analytical purposes into four income groups: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high income.

The main criterion used by the World Bank in classifying different countries is the per capita income or average income of a person in a country. Limitations of this criterion:It does not tell us about how this average income is distributed among the people in the individual countries.

The World Bank classifies the world's economies into four groups, based on gross national income per capita: high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low income countries. Least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing states are all sub-groupings of developing countries.

We provide low-interest loans, zero to low-interest credits, and grants to developing countries. These support a wide array of investments in such areas as education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management.

In the World Development Reports, the World Bank classifies countries based on per capita income. It classifies countries into four categories, namely low-income countries, lower-middle-income countries, higher-middle-income countries, and high-income countries.

Economies are currently divided into four income groupings: low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high. Income is measured using gross national income (GNI) per capita, in U.S. dollars, converted from local currency using the World Bank Atlas method.

For operational and analytical purposes, the World Bank's main criterion for classifying economies is gross national income (GNI) per capita. Every economy is classified as low income, middle income (subdivided into lower middle and upper middle), or high income.

Countries with less than $1,035 GNI per capita are classified as low-income countries, those with between $1,036 and $4,085 as lower middle income countries, those with between $4,086 and $12,615 as upper middle income countries, and those with incomes of more than $12,615 as high-income countries.

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.

What classifies a country? ›

International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined territory, a government not under another, and the capacity to interact with other states. UN member states that at least one other UN member state does not recognise.

Countries are placed into groups to try to better understand their social and economic outcomes. The most widely accepted criterion is labeling countries as either developed or developing countries.

Countries have been organized by region, income level, and Human Development Index ranking. Regions: Geographic classification includes eight main regions: Africa, East Asia and Pacific, Europe, Central Asia, Latin America and Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa, Northern America and South Asia.

Its role is to reduce poverty by lending money to the governments of its poorer members to improve their economies and to improve the standard of living of their people. The Bank is also one of the world's largest research centers in development.

The World Bank Group assigns the world's economies[1] to four income groups – low, lower-middle, upper-middle, and high. The classifications are updated each year on July 1, based on the GNI per capita of the previous calendar year.

The organizations that make up the World Bank Group are owned by the governments of member nations, which have the ultimate decision-making power within the organizations on all matters, including policy, financial or membership issues.

However, the World Bank and U.N. Development Program classify China as an "upper middle income" country, while the IMF calls the country an "emerging and developing economy."

The five United Nations member states that are not members of the World Bank are Andorra, Cuba, Liechtenstein, Monaco, and North Korea. Kosovo is not a member of the UN, but is a member of the IMF and the World Bank Group, including the IBRD and IDA.

List of high-income economies (as of 2024 fiscal year) According to the World Bank the following 83 countries (including territories) are classified as "high-income economies." In brackets are the year(s) during which they held such classification; classifying began in 1987.