Every one of us has been born. However, where in the world this birth has occurred is not at all insignificant. In some parts of the world, a newborn infant is born into a place where they can have access to high-quality health care, good education, a varied and plentiful diet and an enjoyable, safe environment to live in.

However, in other parts of the world, the chance that a newborn infant reaches the age of one is just under 80 %. In these areas, the risk of contracting a serious illness is high and daily life is characterized by the struggle to procure food and clean water.

People living in a waste dump in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Nations are often divided into developed and undeveloped nations. In developed nations, the infant mortality rate is low, almost all citizens can read and write, health care is of a high quality and different systems of social welfare aid people in times of illness and old age. In undeveloped nations, the situation is completely the opposite. In addition to weak nutrition, health care and education, the populations of undeveloped nations are often also tormented by inequality and conflicts.

However, the division between developed and undeveloped nations does not describe the distribution of the planet's levels of development and wealth completely accurately. In some previously undeveloped nations, some of the problems listed above have begun to improve. As a result, these nations can be considered developing nations. On the other hand, the wealth of developed nations has begun to be distributed more unevenly, which can be seen as an increase in poverty. Therefore, the classification has grown more complex. Despite this, nations can still be classified in terms of their levels of income, and the differences between different nations continue to be significant.

THE GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT OF DIFFErENT NATIONS 

Nation	Gross domestic product per capita
Qatar	130 000 US dollars per capita
United States	56 000 $
Sweden	48 000 $
Finland	41 000 $
Ethiopia (Africa)	1 800 $
Burundi (Africa)	830 $

The level of a nation's development can be studied with different kinds of metrics. Gross domestic product (GDP) is a metric that displays the market value of all goods and services produced in a nation during a specific time period. When divided by the nation's population, the resulting metric, GDP per capita, is a useful tool in measuring the average levels of income in different nations. GDP tells us the total value of a nation's production, but does not say anything about how the resulting wealth is distributed between its people.

The level of development of a nation's health care system can be studied by looking at its infant mortality (dead children under the age of one year) and childhood mortality (dead children under the age of five years) rates. Similarly, the level of a nation's education system can be observed by studying its population's literacy rate. 

Different metrics can be combined to create more comprehensive metrics. For example, the Human Development Index (HDI) is a number that takes all of the metrics mentioned above into account.

What are the differences between nations caused by? Some differences can be explained by the difficult natural conditions in some nations, where things such as droughts and rainless seasons make human life more difficult. Long and violent conflicts have prohibited the development of some nations. There are also nations where autocratic and corrupt governments keep up a division between the rich elite and a poor majority. However, one of the most central common explanation to the low levels of development in certain nations is their history as European colonies. Western nations used these colonies as sources of raw materials for themselves. A similar economic structure, which is based on the export of cheap raw materials, can be seen in many developing nations to this day. As a result of their colonial history, the levels of income in these nations have remained low. This has been further worsened by the nations incurring more and more debt.

INDEX DATA FROM DIFFERENT NATIONS

Nation	GDP per capita (USD)	HDI (Human Development Index, 0-1)	GINI (0–100, a large number signifies a high level of income disparity)
United States	56 000	0,91	47
Finland	41 000	0,88	27
Zimbabwe	600	0,37	50