The globalization of the world economy and increased competition are forcing countries to unite in groupings. By the way, the inclusion of a country in any group can be used by researchers as a methodological technique that allows them to better understand the standard of living in it. The unification of states occurs on a variety of grounds, from the size of the territory and geographical location to the level of economic development and individual industries.
Economic integration
Any kind of real association is aimed at achieving economic goals. Groupings of countries arise mainly with the aim of creating a common economic space. On almost all continents, associations of countries are being created that contribute to the free movement of goods and services, capital and labor resources. Most successful economic groupings of countries:
- European Union;
- NAFTA;
- Eurasian economicunion;
- ASEAN.
The most advanced association is the European Union, which already has a single currency, supranational governments and a common economic space. Other associations began with the organization of a common market, with the free movement of resources with one or another specificity. For example, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which is dominated by the United States, while Mexico and, to a lesser extent, Canada, are "manufacturing workshops". However, there is no free movement of labor within this association.
The goal of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is to become the industrial base of the world. The Eurasian Economic Union plans to create a common economic space.
There are integration economic groupings of countries on almost all continents, while countries can be members of several associations.
Economic classification of countries
According to the level of socio-economic development of the country, it is customary to divide it into three blocks:
- The largest number of countries are developing. We are talking about more than 120 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. They have a relatively underdeveloped industry (in many respects it is only the primary processing of raw materials) and a large agricultural sector. In many, the food problem has not been solved and there is great unemployment. This grouping of countries is characterized by unstable economic development, technological backwardness and low labor productivity. With anotherOn the other hand, this group includes India - one of the largest economies in the world, which is also making progress in high technologies.
- The most developed countries of the world include the countries of Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, as well as several Asian countries. All of them have a developed market economy, a high level of income of the population, the service sector dominates in the economy, and the industry produces high-tech products.
- There is also a grouping of countries that occupies an intermediate position, according to the economic classification of the UN and the IMF. They are neither developed nor developing countries. For example, these are the countries of Eastern Europe, Russia and other CIS countries.
Geography and demography
Probably the very first ways to classify countries. The seven largest countries of the world with a territory of more than 3 million km² are distinguished by the size of the territory. Russia tops this list by a wide margin from the rest (17,075 million km²). Canada, China and the USA follow.
In terms of population, a group of ten states with a population of more than 100 million people is distinguished. Of these, the two largest countries in the world (China and India) have a population of over 1 billion people. Russia is in seventh place, with 145 million people.
Geographic grouping of countries can also be varied, such as the continent on which it is located or access to the sea: coastal, island and landlocked.
GDP
To answer the question which country is the richest,commonly used is the gross domestic product. Over the past decades, the United States has the largest GDP ($19,284.99 billion), of course, it is the richest country in the world.
Followed by China and, with a significant gap in terms of GDP from the first two countries, Japan and Germany. Russia is in 13th place with a GDP of $1267.55 billion.
Country groupings are also formed by GDP PPP (GDP at purchasing power parity, that is, recalculated taking into account prices in the country's economy). According to this indicator, China ranks first, followed by the United States, India, and Japan. Russia is in sixth place. By the way, some economists consider GDP PPP to be a fairer indicator of the level of the economy. Therefore, the question of which is the richest country in the world, you can answer that it is China.
Rich and poor
Grouping countries by level of annual income is determined on the basis of GDP per capita. All states are classified as low-income countries if the named GDP is less than $750. For example, these include Haiti and Tajikistan.
The group of countries with lower middle income ($756 to $2995) includes countries from Rwanda ($761.56) to Swaziland ($2613.91). From the post-Soviet space, Ukraine is in this group ($2205.67).
Above-middle-income countries should be between $2,996 and $9,265. At the top of this income group are Mexico, China and Russia.
Finally, the most developed countries are those with income above $9266. There are 69 of them in total. And the first three places are occupied by Luxembourg, Switzerland and Norway. Economic classification by income level, commonly used by international financial institutions when providing economic assistance.
Type of economy
The vast majority of countries now belong to the capitalist states with a market economy. This grouping includes both the most industrialized rich states and the poorest ones. Several countries in Asia (China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos) and Cuba are still considered to be centrally controlled economies. Despite the fact that market relations are increasingly used here, they continue to retain command-and-control methods of managing the economy.
The level of economic development
According to the level of economic development in most industries, groupings of countries are divided into pre-industrial or agricultural, industrial and post-industrial.
Several dozen of the poorest countries live off agricultural production, and some of them even exist mainly due to donor assistance. Most of the population (up to 80-90%) is employed in the agricultural sector, where the traditional economic system and pre-capitalist relations are preserved. These countries include countries in Africa (eg Somalia, Chad) and Asia (eg Cambodia, Yemen).
A fairly large grouping of countries belongs to the industrial ones. These are the strongest economies among developingstates. There is a developed mining and processing industry based on a free market economy.
Sometimes there are also industrial-agricultural countries (for example, India, Thailand), which have a developed industry, but also a strong agricultural sector.
Developed countries have entered the era of a post-industrial society characterized by a predominant service sector. This grouping of countries is distinguished by innovative economies with a high share of GDP in the high-tech sector, especially in the digital sector. The main engine of progress is the knowledge industry.
Other classifications
There are groupings of countries on various grounds: socio-economic, geographical, religious. Most often, in practice, the grouping of countries into groups according to some economic feature, such as the volume of foreign trade, the size of the domestic market, the production and / or export of a certain type of product, is used. So, there are oil-producing countries, most of which are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. An example of unification on a geographical basis is the Chinese project of the New Silk Road, which unites countries located on the ancient trade route from China to Europe.
