developing country

developing country (plural developing countries)

1. (economics) A country with an emerging and low- and middle-income but still industrializing its economy.
2. (sometimes derogatory) A poor country with less industrial base, widespread poverty, and low Human Development Index (HDI).

The terms developed country and developing country are in wide use as of 2022. Some style guides discourage their use in favor of terms with less implicit bias such as "high-income countries" and "low- and middle-income countries".[1][2]

• developed country

• “developing country”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.