7.6.1: The Most Industrialized Nations

 7.6.1: The Most Industrialized Nations The Most Industrialized Nations are the United States and Canada in North America; Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, and the other industrialized countries of western Europe; Japan in Asia; and Australia and New Zealand in the area of the world known as Oceania. Although there are variations in their economic systems, these countries are capitalistic. As Table 7.2 shows, although these nations have only 16 percent of the world’s people, they possess 31 percent of the Earth’s land. Their wealth is so enormous that even their poor live better and longer lives than do the average citizens of the Least Industrialized Nations. Table 7.2 Distribution of the World’s Land and Population

In the following Social Map, you can see the tremendous disparities in wealth and poverty among the world’s nations. People in one country have $102,000 a year to live on, while people in another country must get by on just $400. One of the world’s poorest countries (see number 136) is just 700 miles from the United States. Figure 7.4 Global Stratification: Income of the World’s Nations