Second World Countries List

The Second World is a Western term to regard to the former socialist industrial countries (previously the Eastern Bloc), generally the territory and area under the control of the Soviet Union. Following World War 2, there were 19 communist countries, and after the fall of the Soviet Union (Russia), only five socialist countries remained: China, North Korea, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam. Along with "1st World" and "3rd World", the term was used to separate the countries of Earth into 3 broad categories.

About Second World Countries Map

Explore the map of second world countries to locate all the countries which are considered as second world.

Second World Definition

The second world is a terminology extensively used during the Cold War era. It was coined specially for the industrial socialist states under the Soviet Union’s influence. In the aftermath of the Second World War, nineteen communist states evolved. All these states were under Soviet influence. However, some nations like China and Yugoslavia broke away from Russia. These nations developed their own way of socialism while keeping faith in the Communist government structure. On the other hand, a majority of communist nations were an integral part of this bloc until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. After the fall of the Soviet Union, only five communist nations remained. They are China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba.

Concept of the Second World

The Second World’s concept emanated from the Cold War era. It is largely used to denote the former countries which supported communism. However, many of them nowadays are capitalist states like Eastern Europe. Subsequently, the meaning of the first world, second world and third world changed from being based on political ideology to economic conditions. This three-world theory has been criticized by sociologists. They prefer using terms like developed, developing and underdeveloped. But still, this three-world theory is quite popular in contemporary literature.

Human Development in Contrast to the Three World Model

To be precise, the three-world model was implemented to analyze and rank the nations’ development and their economies during the era of the Cold War. The first world countries were capitalist and industrial. They shared similar economic and political institutions. The second world nations depicted socialism and displayed specific traits like centrally-planned economies along with single-party states. The first world and the second world were competing for economic and political influence over the developing or third world nations.

The Human Development Index or HDI is used to rank the nations. It is determined by seeing at a nation’s human development indicators like per capita income, life expectancy and education. Usually, the scale is 0 to 1. A country’s HDI can be put into four categories. For instance, 0 to .55 is low. On the other hand, 0.55 to 0.70 is medium, and 0.70 to 0.80 is high. When a country has a high HDI, the HDI lies in the range of 0.80 to 1. The second world nations from the Cold War era usually depicted medium to high HDI.

Second World Countries Examples and Decline in Usage of the Term “Second World”

Some examples of the Second World nations are Slovakia, Czech Republic, Mongolia, North Korea, etc. In terms of the socio-economic notion, a worthwhile definition of the second world countries would be the newly industrialized nations like India, Malaysia, Thailand, etc. Second world nations are countries that are more developed and stable when compared to the third world countries, which are located in various parts of South America, Africa, Central America and South Asia. However, these nations are less stable and developed than first-world nations like the United States. Developing nations are countries that are not much industrialized and possess lower per capita income levels. The powerful economies located in the West are still classified as the First World. However, the term second world ceased to exist after the fall of the Soviet Union.

List of Second World Countries 2021

S.N.	Second World Countries Name	Capital	Population	Currency	Dialing Code	2015 GDP (PPP) in Millions	2015 Nominal GDP - $ Millions	2015 GDP (PPP) per Capita	Area (km2)	Area (sq mi)
1	Albania	Tirana	30,20,209	Lek	+355	$32,440	$11,590	$11,900	28,748	11,100
2	Armenia	Yerevan	30,60,631	Dram	+374	$25,220	$10,610	$8,400	29,743	11,484
3	Azerbaijan	Baku	96,86,210	Manat	+994	$1,74,300	$63,980	$18,700	86,600	33,436
4	Belarus	Minsk	96,08,058	Belarusian ruble	+375	$1,68,200	$62,020	$17,800	2,07,600	80,155
5	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Sarajevo	38,71,643	Convertible mark	+387	$39,460	$15,570	$10,200	51,197	19,767
6	Bulgaria	Sofia	69,24,716	Lev	+359	$1,32,600	$47,170	$18,400	1,10,879	42,811
7	China	Beijing	1,37,07,93,000	Renminbi (yuan)	+86	$1,95,10,000	$1,13,80,000	$14,300	95,96,961	37,05,407
8	Croatia	Zagreb	44,70,534	Kuna	+385	$90,330	$48,930	$21,300	56,594	21,851
9	Cuba	Havana	1,12,52,000	Cuban peso, Cuban convertible peso	+53	$1,28,500	$77,150	$10,200	1,09,884	42,426
10	Czech Republic	Prague	1,05,38,275	Czech koruna	+420	$3,31,400	$1,82,500	$31,500	78,867	30,451
11	East Germany	Berlin	8,09,96,685	Euro	+49	$38,42,000	$33,71,000	$47,400	3,57,022	1,37,847
12	Estonia	Tallinn	12,57,921	Euro	+372	$37,880	$22,930	$28,700	45,228	17,463
13	Georgia	Tbilisi / T'bilisi	49,35,880	Lari	+995	$35,370	$13,750	$9,500	69,700	26,911
14	Hungary	Budapest	99,19,128	Forint	+36	$2,57,000	$1,18,500	$26,000	93,028	35,918
15	Kazakhstan	Astana	1,79,48,816	Tenge	+7-6xx, +7-7xx	$4,30,500	$1,95,000	$24,700	27,24,900	10,52,090
16	Kyrgyzstan	Bishkek	59,43,000	Som	+996	$19,810	$7,158	$3,400	1,99,951	77,181
17	Laos	Vientiane	68,02,000	Kip	+856	$37,500	$12,550	$5,400	2,36,800	91,428.99
18	Latvia	Riga	21,65,165	Euro	+371	$49,890	$27,820	$24,500	64,589	24,938
19	Lithuania	Vilnius	29,43,472	Euro	+370	$82,140	$41,780	$28,000	65,300	25,212
20	Macedonia, Rep. of	Skopje	20,91,719	Macedonian denar	+389	$28,890	$10,090	$14,000	25,713	9,928
21	Moldova	Chișinău	35,83,288	Moldovan leu	+373	$17,770	$6,188	$5,000	33,851	13,070
22	Montenegro	Podgorica	6,50,036	Euro	+382	$9,829	$3,985	$15,700	13,812	5,333
23	North Korea	P'yŏngyang	2,58,63,000	North Korean won	+850	$40,000	$28,000	$1,800	1,20,540	46,528
24	Poland	Warsaw	3,83,46,279	Polish złoty	+48	$10,03,000	$4,81,200	$26,400	3,12,685	1,20,728
25	Romania	Bucharest	2,17,29,871	Romanian leu	+40	$4,11,100	$1,74,900	$20,600	2,38,391	92,043
26	Russia	Moscow	14,62,67,288	Russian ruble	+7	$34,71,000	$12,36,000	$23,700	1,70,98,242	66,01,668
27	Serbia	Belgrade	72,09,764	Serbian dinar	+381	$97,270	$36,560	$13,600	88,361	34,116
28	Slovakia	Bratislava	54,43,583	Euro	+421	$1,59,600	$86,200	$29,500	49,035	18,933
29	Slovenia	Ljubljana	19,88,292	Euro	+386	$63,600	$42,740	$30,900	20,273	7,827
30	Tajikistan	Dushanbe	84,51,000	Somoni	+992	$23,300	$8,045	$2,800	1,43,100	55,251
31	Turkmenistan	Ashgabat	49,02,000	Turkmen new manat	+993	$90,290	$44,360	$15,600	4,91,210	1,88,456
32	Ukraine	Kiev	4,42,91,413	Ukrainian hryvnia	+380	$3,34,200	$90,140	$8,000	6,03,550	2,33,032
33	Uzbekistan	Tashkent	3,12,83,000	Uzbekistan som (O'zbekiston so'mi)	+998	$1,85,800	$65,950	$6,100	4,48,978	1,72,742
34	Vietnam	Hanoi	9,18,12,000	đồng	+84	$5,51,300	$1,98,800	$6,100	3,32,698	1,28,565