Countries that do not have a developed industrial infrastructure.

The "less developed" countries include all of Africa, all of Asia except Japan, the Transcaucasian and Central Asian republics of the NIS, all of Latin America and the Caribbean, and all of Oceania except Australia and New Zealand. This category matches the "less developed country" classification employed by the United Nations. "Less developed" countries are also referred to in the report as "developing" countries.

approximately 130 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America suffer from some or all of the following characteristics and could be classified as developing or less developed countries: majority of people living in poverty, mostly farmers or hunters, little or no industry, high birth rates and declining death rates, low life expectancy, malnutrition, poor housing, and more illiteracy than literacy.

These are the nonindustrialized nations of the Third World. Often they are former colonies of western nations that rely on the export of raw materials to maintain a precarious prosperity.