For many years the Development Assistance Committee of OECD published a list of Aid Recipients. This list was known as the "List of Developing Countries and Territories". Currently, the World Bank, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and specific member organizations have set different thresholds for designated developing countries. Fortunately, these differences are usually minor. The income information from the World Bank is used to help designate developing countries. For operational and analytical purposes, the World Bank's main criterion for classifying economies is Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. Based on its GNI per capita, every economy is classified as low income, middle income (subdivided into lower middle and upper middle), or high income. Other factors considered for classification include geographic regions and levels of external debt.
Low-income and middle-income economies are sometimes referred to as developing economies. The use of the term is convenient; it is not intended to imply that all economies in the group are experiencing similar development or that other economies have reached a preferred or final stage of development. Classification by income does not necessarily reflect development status.
Economies are divided according to 2000 GNI per capita, calculated using the World Bank Atlas method. The groups are: low income, $755 or less; lower middle income, $756-$2,995; upper middle income, $2,996- $9,265; and high income, $9,266 or more.
The World Bank publishes tables that classify all World Bank member countries (183), and all other economies with populations of more than 30,000 (207 total).
For more information see the World Bank Group http://www.worldbank.org/data/
To see the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development list see http://www1.oecd.org/dac/htm/daclst2000.htm
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