Classification of Nations as Developed and Less Developed: An Arrangement by Discriminant Analysis of Socioeconomic Data

. Recent data from 62 countries representing various levels of national development are analyzed. A number of metal, economic, nutritional, demographic, cultural and health indicators, derived from these nations, were submitted to discriminant analysis, on the basis of a priori classification of each nation to one of three levels of development. The analysis produced specific characteristics for each level of development, which categorized the nations in distinct clusters underlying the socioeconomic and political similarities in each one. The thus developed discriminant characteristics were then applied to 19 additional nations of “unknown” developmental level: they too were classified and clustered in perfect association with the original 62 by their inherent and acquired similarities. Thus a universally applicable process to classify a nation objectively on the basis of its own national characteristics by level of development is presented.