Is Thailand a Third World Country?

 

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I recently had someone Tweet me saying Thailand is a third world country. He was adamant about this and gave me a list of reasons why. I actually thought he was talking rubbish so thought I’d do a little digging around on the topic. A quick note that some of this is a bit more serious than my normal posts but hopefully you’ll enjoy reading it!

So, is Thailand a third world country?

What is Third World?

To be honest the dictionary definition, historical meaning and a lot of people’s use of the term “third world” is different.

The Oxford Dictionary states the definition of third world is as such “The developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America” and the origin of the phrase as: “First applied in the 1950s by French commentators who used tiers monde to distinguish the developing countries from the capitalist and communist blocs”. This historical context is also explained further in this link on Nations Online.org.

Most people I’ve spoken to, myself include, would think of third world was as countries who have extreme poverty, economic issues and problems with health, education and food. Indeed the UN now uses the term Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to cover these exact things.

Thailand isn’t on the List of LDCs

A quick look at the link above of LDCs (updated in March 2018) shows that Thailand isn’t on the list. Other neighboring countries such as Laos and Cambodia do appear and for anyone who has visited these countries the difference in the development of these nations versus Thailand is quite evident.

Thailand Fits the Dictionary Definition (Perhaps)

If we take the Oxford dictionary definition then Thailand perhaps fits the definition. There are not a set factors which define developing in this dictionary definition though. You could argue that every country is always trying to improve and develop itself. Also a phrase coined around 60 years ago maybe doesn’t fit as well as LDCs and the criteria used by the UN to define those places does. The historical nature of the phrase third world was also linked to communist and capitalist blocs and every other country was shoehorned into the “third world”.

The Argument of the Grumpy Expat

The basis of the Tweet I got from the angry American was that Thailand is third world because of it’s education system and this leads to poor people and no improvement in society. I feel that some of the others who say Thailand is third world use similar out-dated logic. Issues such as the transport system, income disparity and cleanliness are also used by other expats to suggest Thailand is a third world country.

Lets take these issues and look at why they are wrong based on the three requirements to be on the UNs list of LDCs. 

Income

Gross National Income (GNI) per Capita is used to determine if people are living in poverty in a country. LDCs must have a rate below $1,025. For graduates it is considered $2,460. Worldbank shows in 2016 Thailand’s GNI per capita was $5,700 – over five times higher than the poverty limit.

Worldbank also stated in 2015 that the poverty threshold is $1.90 per day. The minimum wage in Thailand is roughly $10 a day, a long way above this. Before anyone jumps on my back I know not everyone makes the minimum wage here but we can’t look at every individual in the country. Back on this Worldbank article we can see that roughly 10.4% of the Thai population is considered to be living in poverty compared to 32.1% of people in Myanmar.

Human Assest Index (HAI)

The HAI is an index which shows eight key areas of human development: health, education, employment, income, housing and living environment, family and community life transport and communication and participation.

This cracking article on Thailand UNDP explains it well and shows that Thailand is one of the few countries to use this index in different provinces, not just as a whole for the country. The article shows Thailand ranked 89 of 185 countries on the index which is comfortably in the middle. This would suggest that Thailand is doing alright in these eight key areas compared to the rest of the world.

Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI)

This index is used to rank how countries would cope with unexpected shocks such as financial crashes or environmental issues. More detailed analysis of this can be found here of Ferdi.fr . Again there are eight areas: population size, remoteness, merchandise export concentration, share of agriculture forestry and fisheries in GDP, homelessness owing to natural disasters, instability of agriculture production, instability of export of goods and services, the share of the population living in low elevated coastal sections.

Looking on page 68 of this UN report Thailand didn’t appear on countries with a negative rating on the EVI.

Is Everything Perfect in Thailand?

Of course there are problems here and improvements can be made. Thailand isn’t number one in every field and, in general, is probably in the middle of most. The education system could be better but at least it is available to all students. The transport system could improve but its fair to say that at least there are decent roads in a large proportion of the country. Salaries could be higher but again at least most people have enough to cover food and accommodation.

I’m not sugar coating things but judging by the views of some expats there needs to be context. Thailand has improved over the years for sure and at quite a fast rate. As I said before if you’ve visited Laos, Cambodia or even Vietnam you have to admit that things are much more developed here in Thailand.

I feel that there is a large income disparity between people here. I’ve seen more supercars in Thailand than the UK and at the same time people going through trash to find plastic bottles to sell. It’s an odd situation for sure. Rich people live very well here and in comparison those less well off do struggle.

Why do Some Expats say Thailand is Third World?

I honestly feel that there is a small group of people here in Thailand that have nothing better to do than bash the country at every opportunity. They can find holes in anything and turn it into an opportunity to put the boot into Thailand.

The guy who Tweeted me told me I obviously hadn’t been to the rural areas as that was where the poverty was. I guess my retort to that is that poverty here in Thailand, in general, isn’t as bad as in LDC countries. Sure compared to where some expats are from people make less and times are tougher. On the other hand a lot of economic migrants come to Thailand from neighboring countries because wages are higher and the quality of life better.

If Thailand was included in the LDC then I’m sure fewer expats would be here as they probably couldn’t enjoy world class resorts, fine dining, championship standard golf courses and the other facilities which makes Thailand popular with expats. It seems for some people they unfortunately just enjoy calling Thailand third world for the fun of it.

About Richard 176 Articles
British guy living and working in Bangkok, Thailand since 2013. Running LifeInANewCountry.com teaching and writer of Settling in Thailand expat book.