What is the definition of a third world country and where did it
come from? Are there first, second, and fourth world countries?
The Answer:
Coined by French demographer Alfred Sauvy in the 1950s, "third
world" refers to economically underdeveloped countries. Sauvy was
making an analogy between pre-industrial nations with the poor of
pre-Revolutionary France, who were considered part of the "third
estate."
When the concept became popularized, it was extended to include
"first" (industrialized or westernized) and "second" (communist)
worlds. These distinctions have become less useful with the end of the
Cold War.
The concept of the "third world" still rings true as there are
many nations with high infant mortality, high rates of poverty, and
dependence on industrialized nations.
