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Should You Say ‘Third World,’ ‘Developing Countries,’ Or ‘Global South’?
Be careful how you write about nations less prosperous than yours — you could sound condescending
Writing thoughtfully about nations less well off than yours is a minefield. The phrase “third world” is especially knotty— in part, because it’s lost its original meaning.
The term emerged during the Cold War as a way to identify nations outside the Western and Soviet spheres. “First world” referred to developed non-Communist nations, “second world” to developed Communist nations, and “third world” to everybody else.
“Third world” has come to mean poor or “emerging” nations, or those becoming industrialized or economically important. It’s often used, pejoratively, as shorthand for “backward.”
‘Developing nations’ shows more respect than ‘third world’
“Third world” can also blur distinctions among states or regions and imply, misleadingly, that some nations come in third across the board: Alabama has a higher infant mortality rate than several countries considered “developing” or “emerging,” including Bahrain and Sri Lanka.
