Definition
A country-income level classification is based on the level of income measured in monetary terms, and has not necessarily a correlation to the development level of that economy. In Economics, development has a broad and far-reaching meaning, encompassing diverse attributes such as access to high-quality education, health, housing, and food, among others. Ray (1998) argues that, even though “most of us would insist that a minimal requirement for a ‘developed’ nation is that the physical quality of life be high, and be so uniformly, rather than being restricted to an incongruously affluent minority,” it involves many other aspects which are not related to material well-being. Aspects such as political rights, safety, and equality are also a pre-condition for being a developed nation. Such attributes are not necessarily present in a high-income country.
An income level classification is an artifact to group countries, based on,...
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van Noije, P., Swart, J. (2020). Country-Income Level Classification: Relationship to Poverty. In: Leal Filho, W., Azul, A.M., Brandli, L., Lange Salvia, A., Özuyar, P.G., Wall, T. (eds) No Poverty. Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69625-6_83-1
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