3rd world

[lovelylad]

What's the 2nd world?

[ravenhair]

This has come from a misunderstanding in what the Third World means. It actually refers to the fraction, ie a third of the world lives in these conditions of poverty. The French term is Tiers-Monde (tiers = one-third) rather than troisi�me (ordinal number third) and this has been mistranslated.

[Spirit Raven]

Some books do refer to the 2nd world being communist countries.

[papertiger]

Yes, 2nd world nation-states are commonly referred as the previoust soviet blocs which had "backwards economies." They didn't live in destitution, but also not in the first-rate living of the first world.

[SJmacleod]

Europe is the First World, The Americas are the New World, and the Third world is the rest of the globe, especially poor countries.