Sociology Now, Census Update

Globalization has increased the economic, political, and social interconnectedness

of the world. It has also resulted in both unthinkable wealth and widespread poverty

and suffering. Three decades ago, the richest 20 percent was 30 times better off than

the poorest 20 percent. By 1998, the gap had widened to 82 times (Gates, 1999).

Classifying Global Economies

Social scientists used to divide the world into three socioeconomic categories:

■The First Worldincludes wealthy, industrialized, capitalist countries: the United

States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. It is the equiva-

lent of the upper class.

■The Second Worldis made up of less wealthy, less industrialized, socialist coun-

tries: the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, Cuba, and a few countries in

Africa. It is the equivalent of the middle or working class.

■The Third Worldincludes poor, nonindustrialized countries, usually colonial or

postcolonial states: Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania.

But that classification is now considered outdated, ethnocentric, and way too

broad to be useful (there are over 100 countries in the “Third World”). Today we

tend to use the terms developed, developing, and underdeveloped, or else the World

Bank’s classification by economic and social indicators, listed below, that suggest a

high or low quality of life (Figure 7.5):

■Gross domestic product (GDP),the annual production of goods and services,

averaging $8,200 per capita worldwide in 2004. High-income countries

account for about 80 percent of the world’s GDP and low-income countries about

2 percent (World Bank, 2006).

■Work,or the percentage of the population engaged in agriculture versus indus-

try. Because agricultural work is usually at subsistence level—that is, farmers

230 CHAPTER 7STRATIFICATION AND SOCIAL CLASS

Per capita

income

RICHEST

RICHEST

POOREST

POOREST

REGIONAL SHARE OF THE POPULATION

FOR EACH 20% OF INCOME (%)

WORLD INCOME DISTRIBUTED BY

PERCENTILES OF THE POPULATION, 2000

High-income OECD

Eastern & Central Europe & the CIS

Latin America & the Caribbean

East Asia & the Pacific

South Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

FIGURE 7.4 Where the Money Is

Source:From “Trends in Global Income Distribution 1970–2015” by Yuri Dikhanov, Human Development Report 2005,

p. 37. Reprinted by permission of Yuri Dikhanov, http://www.hdr.undp.org.