Updated country income classifications for the World Bank’s 2019 fiscal year are available here.
The World Bank assigns the world's economies into four income groups — high, upper-middle, lower-middle, and low. We base this assignment on GNI per capita calculated using the Atlas method. The units for this measure and for the thresholds is current US Dollars.
At the Bank, these classifications are used to aggregate data for groups of similar countries. The income-category of a country is not one of the factors used that influence lending decisions.
Each year on July 1st, we update the classifications. They change for two reasons:
1. In each country, factors such as income growth, inflation, exchange rates, and population change, influence GNI per capita.
2. To keep the dollar thresholds which separate the classifications fixed in real terms, we adjust them for inflation.
The data for the first adjustment come from estimates of 2017 GNI per capita which are now available. This year, the thresholds have moved down slightly because of low price inflation and the strengthening of the US dollar. Click here for information about how the World Bank classifies countries.
Updated Thresholds
New thresholds are determined at the start of the Bank’s fiscal year in July and remain fixed for 12 months regardless of subsequent revisions to estimates. As of July 1 2018, the new thresholds for classification by income are:
| Threshold | GNI/Capita (current US$) |
|---|---|
| Low-income | |
| Lower-middle income | 996 - 3,895 |
| Upper-middle income | 3,896 - 12,055 |
| High-income | > 12,055 |
Changes in Classification
The following countries have new income groups:
| Country | Old group | New group |
|---|---|---|
| Argentina | Upper-middle | High-income |
| Armenia | Lower-middle | Upper-middle |
| Croatia | Upper-middle | High-income |
| Guatemala | Lower-middle | Upper-middle |
| Jordan | Lower-middle | Upper-middle |
| Panama | Upper-middle | High-income |
| Syrian Arab Rep. | Lower-middle | Low-income |
| Tajikistan | Lower-middle | Low-income |
| Yemen Rep. | Lower-middle | Low-income |
The country and lending groups page provides a complete list of economies classified by income, region, and lending status and links to previous years’ classifications. The classification tables include all World Bank members, plus all other economies with populations of more than 30,000. The term country, used interchangeably with economy, does not imply political independence but refers to any territory for which authorities report separate social or economic statistics.
Tables showing 2017 GNI, GNI per capita, GDP, GDP PPP, and Population data are also available as part of the World Bank's Open Data Catalog. Note that these are preliminary estimates and may be revised. For more information, please contact us at data@worldbank.org.
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Good update on countries classification
Thanks for the information and updates.Great work and well researched I will only say keep the light shining.
Very useful. A ready reference.
This is wonderful. This information is quite impressive. I want more details on the assistant of world bank group to my country, Nigeria.
The second paragraph states that “...the income-category is not one of the factors used to influence lending decisions.” I believe that you may have meant to say that “the income category is one of the factors...”
It’s great to hear that some countries improved their economic conditions significantly.
Thanks to the World Bank.
My understanding and experiences say that we can achieve more with more focus on Education.
Khem Sedhai
Maxwell School, Syracuse University
I like receiving the World Bank Group publications
I am interested in the data pertaining rural economies of the countries of African and Asian regions
Data and information very useful for the policy makers.
thanks for updating us. its really important for upcoming economists like me
your data about countries are very useful for my academic research ,thanks
Thanks for this forum for am sure it will help many of us out there with data to do projects
What about romania? It has a gdp per capita of almost 14.000$
I like this information
I am working on my final thesis about the socioeconomic impact of luxury tourism in developing countries, and I'm looking for some classifications of developing countries.
Should I consider these countries if their GNI per capita is under 12,005 $? Why
Thank you in advance!
Axel Dagà, University of Girona.
this proved useful a whole lot but i actually need the datas for the high income countries. thanks
I'd love to get those data with the form of excel file and also your categorization could be divided by frontier, emerging and developed also? if yes, how? pls let me know the criteria.
thank you
Nice update