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Third World" can be used to divide the nations of Earth into three broad categories. "Third World" is a term first coined in 1952 by French demographer Alfred Sauvy on the model of Sieyès's declaration concerning the Third Estate during the French Revolution: "...because at the end this ignored, exploited, scorned Third World like the Third Estate, wants to become something too." The Third World later became a synonym of these nations that aligned themselves with neither the West nor with the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War. Thus, the Non-Aligned Movement was created after the 1955 Bandung Conference.

Today, however, the term is frequently used to denote nations with a low UN Human Development Index (HDI), independent of their political status (meaning that the PRC, Russia and Cuba, all of which were very strongly aligned during the Cold War, are often termed third world). However, there is no objective definition of Third World or "Third World country" and the use of the term remains common. The term Third World is also disliked as it may imply the false notion that those countries are not a part of the global economic system. Some in academia see it as being out of date, colonialist, othering and inaccurate; its use has continued, however. http://web108.epnet.com/citation.asp?tb=1&_ug=sid+973E2CB5%2D2D86%2D4911%2D8D7D%2D712B45978DA0%40sessionmgr6+dbs+buh+cp+1+1E81&_us=sel+False+frn+1+sl+0+hs+True+cst+0%3B1%3B2%3B3%3B4%3B6%3B7%3B9%3B10+or+Date+ss+SO+sm+KS+mdbs+buh+dstb+KS+mh+1+ri+KAAAGEGB00032528+2EB5&_uso=hd+False+tg%5B0+%2D+st%5B0+%2DThird++World+db%5B0+%2Dbuh+op%5B0+%2D+2CC6&fn=1&rn=3 In general, Third World countries are not as industrialized or technologically advanced as OECD countries, and therefore in academia, the more politically correct term to use is "developing nation".

Terms such as Global South, less wealthy nations, developing countries, least developed countries and the Majority World have become more popular in circles where the term "third world" is regarded to have derogatory or out-of-date connotations. Development workers also call them the two-thirds world (because two-thirds of the world is underdeveloped) and The South. Some theorists, such as Andre Gunder Frank and Walter Rodney have used the term underdevelopment or underdeveloped world, to indicate the active process by which the global South has been locked out of development by imperialism and the post-colonial policies of the richer nations. Others claim that the underdevelopment of Africa, Asia and Latin America during the Cold War was influenced, or even caused by the Cold War economic, political, and military maneuverings of the most powerful nations of the time. (See Emerging markets)

Countries that have more advanced economies than developing nations but haven't yet gained the level of those in the First World are grouped under the term Newly Industrialized Countries or NICs. Current examples includes China, India, Mexico or South Africa to name a few.

The term Fourth World (as least developed countries) is used by some writers to describe the poorest Third World countries, those which lack industrial infrastructure and the means to build it.

See also