Third World

This definition provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three groups based on social, political, and economic divisions. Although the term continues to be used colloquially to describe the poorest countries in the world, this usage is widely disparaged since the term no longer holds any verifiable meaning after the fall of the Soviet Union deprecated the terms First World and Second World.

This name is applied to the technologically less-advanced, or developing, nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The term was originally used to distinguish these countries from the Western nations and those that formed the Eastern bloc and usually excludes China.

The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned or neutral with either capitalism and NATO (which along with its allies represented the First World) or communism and the Soviet Union (which along with its allies represented the Second World).

Third World Countries in terms of political rights and civil liberties.

The most repressive regimes in the world.
List of countries with the worst records for political rights and civil liberties. Within these countries and territories, state control over daily life is pervasive and wide-ranging, independent organizations and political opposition are banned or suppressed, and fear of retribution for independent thought and action is part of daily life.
According to the Freedom House report Freedom in the World 2007, there are eight countries judged to have the worst records:

Burma (Myanmar), Cuba, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan.
Also included are two territories, Chechnya (Russia) and Tibet, whose
inhabitants suffer intense repression. These states and regions received the
Freedom House survey’s lowest rating: 7 for political rights and 7 for civil
liberties.

The report also includes nine further countries near the bottom of Freedom
House’s list of the most repressive:
Belarus, China, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Zimbabwe. The territory of Western Sahara (most of the territory is controlled by Morocco) is also included in this group.
While these states scored slightly better than the “worst of the worst,” they offer very limited scope for private discussion while severely suppressing opposition political activity, impeding independent organizing, and censoring or punishing criticism of the state.

(Source: Freedom House Freedom in the World 2007)
See the full report on Freedom House
See also below: Third World Countries in Terms of Press Freedom

Third World Countries in terms of their Gross National Income (GNI) Countries with the least gross national income based on purchasing-power-parity (PPP) per capita in int’l Dollars. Simplified the GNI PPP is the average annual income earned by a citizen of a country. That means for example, a citizen of Malawi can spend $ 1.6 a day to make a living, a citizen of Eritrea $ 2.5, the average US citizen spends $ 114 daily. Below countries with an average yearly income per capita and year under $ 1000, poorest nations first.
Rank	Country	Region	GNI per capita
1	Timor-Leste	South-East Asia	*400
2	Malawi	Eastern Africa	596
3	Somalia	Eastern Africa	*600
4	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Middle Africa	675
5	Tanzania	Eastern Africa	720
6	Yemen	Middle East	745
7	Burundi	Eastern Africa	753
8	Afghanistan	Central Asia	*800
9	Guinea-Bissau	Western Africa	856
10	Ethiopia	Eastern Africa	859
11	Niger	Western Africa	896
12	Liberia	Western Africa	*900
13	Sierra Leone	Western Africa	901
14	Madagascar	Eastern Africa	911
15	Zambia	Eastern Africa	911
16	Eritrea	Eastern Africa	917
Sources: IMF — International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database, April 2005 (*) CIA The World Factbook (covers countries not mentioned by the IMF, information may refer to 2004 or earlier.) Slightly different figures you will find at The World Bank Group Full list of National Economic Accounts for Countries and Regions around the World

A decent standard of living as measured by GDP per capita* (PPP US$). Below the list of 20 countries with the lowest Human Development Index (HDI)
#	Country	Life expect. at birth	Adult literacy rate	Combined gross enrolment	GDP per capita (PPP US$)	Life expect. index	Educat. index	GDP index	HDI	GDP rank minus HDI rank
157	Senegal	52.7	39.3	38	1,580	0.46	0.39	0.46	0.437	-11
158	Timor-Leste	49.3	58.6	75	..	0.41	0.64	0.26	0.436	19
159	Rwanda	38.9	69.2	53	1,270	0.23	0.64	0.42	0.431	-6
160	Guinea	48.9	41.0	29	2,100	0.40	0.37	0.51	0.425	-30
161	Benin	50.7	39.8	52	1,070	0.43	0.44	0.40	0.421	-5
162	Tanzania	43.5	77.1	31	580	0.31	0.62	0.29	0.407	12
163	Cote d’Ivoire	41.2	49.7	42	1,520	0.27	0.47	0.45	0.399	-16
164	Zambia	32.7	79.9	45	840	0.13	0.68	0.36	0.389	3
165	Malawi	37.8	61.8	74	580	0.21	0.66	0.29	0.388	9
166	Angola	40.1	42.0	30	2,130	0.25	0.38	0.51	0.381	-38
167	Chad	44.7	45.8	35	1,020	0.33	0.42	0.39	0.379	-8
168	Congo, Dem.Rep.	41.4	62.7	27	650	0.27	0.51	0.31	0.365	4
169	Central African Rep.	39.8	48.6	31	1,170	0.25	0.43	0.41	0.361	-15
170	Ethiopia	45.5	41.5	34	780	0.34	0.39	0.34	0.359	-1
171	Mozambique	38.5	46.5	41	1,050	0.22	0.45	0.39	0.354	-14
172	Guinea-Bissau	45.2	39.6	37	710	0.34	0.39	0.33	0.350	-1
173	Burundi	40.8	50.4	33	630	0.26	0.45	0.31	0.339	0
174	Mali	48.5	19.0	26	930	0.39	0.21	0.37	0.326	-11
175	Burkina Faso	45.8	12.8	22	1,100	0.35	0.16	0.40	0.302	-20
176	Niger	46.0	17.1	19	800	0.35	0.18	0.35	0.292	-8
177	Sierra Leone	34.3	36.0	45	520	0.16	0.39	0.28	0.273	-1
Source: UN Human Development Report 2004 Country List of Human Development Index (HDI)

Third World Countries in Terms of Poverty
The world´s most impoverished countries.

The least developed countries (LDCs) are a group of countries that have been identified by the UN as “least developed”.
United Nations used the following three criteria for the identification of the LDCs

1. a low-income estimate of the gross national income (GNI) per capita.

2. their weak human assets and

3. their high degree of economic vulnerability.

There are 50 countries listed in the United Nations comparative analysis of poverty,
34 African countries, 10 Asian countries, 5 Pacific Island Nations and one Caribbean nation.

List of least developed countries (LDCs)

Third World Countries in Terms of Press Freedom Reporters Without Borders is publishing annually an index of the countries of the world according to their respect for press freedom. Below the list of countries, you can call them Third World of Press Freedom, the “black holes” for news where the privately-owned media is not allowed and freedom of expression does not exist. A list of countries right at the bottom of the fourth World Press Freedom Index.
#	Country	Region	Score
147	Tunisia	Northern Africa	57,50
148	Maldives	South-Central Asia	58,50
149	Somalia	Eastern Africa	59,00
150	Pakistan	South-Central Asia	60,75
151	Bangladesh	South-Central Asia	61,25
152	Belarus	Eastern Europe	61,33
153	Zimbabwe	Eastern Africa	64,25
154	Saudi Arabia	Middle East	66,00
155	Lao PDR	South-East Asia	66,50
–	Uzbekistan	South-Central Asia	66,50
157	Iraq	Western Asia/ Middle East	67,00
158	Vietnam	South-East Asia	73,25
159	China	Eastern Asia	83,00
160	Nepal	South-Central Asia	86,75
161	Cuba	Caribbean	87,00
162	Libya	Northern Africa	88,75
163	Myanmar (Burma)	South-East Asia	88,83
164	Iran	South-Central Asia	89,17
165	Turkmenistan	South-Central Asia	93,50
166	Eritrea	Eastern Africa	99,75
167	North Korea	Eastern Asia	109,00
Source: Reporters Without Borders