High income      Upper-middle income      Lower-middle income      Low income Country groupings based on World Bank assessment of per-capita gross income, 2008

A high-income economy is defined by the World Bank as a country with a Gross National Income per capita of $11,906 or more in 2008.^[1] While the term "high income" may be used interchangeably with "First World" and "developed country", the technical definitions of these terms differ. The term "first world" commonly refers to those prosperous countries that aligned themselves with the U.S. and NATO during the cold war. Several institutions, such as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or International Monetary Fund (IMF), take factors other than high per capita income into account when classifying countries as "developed" or "advanced economies". According to the United Nations, for example, some high income countries may also be developing countries. The GCC (Persian Gulf States) countries, for example, are classified as developing high income countries. Thus, a high income country may be classified as either developed or developing.^[2]

[edit] List of high income economies

According to the World Bank the following 67 countries and territories are classified as "high-income economies":^[3]

High-income countries not classified by the World Bank:

• Holy See

[edit] References

[edit] See also