Quora Answer: Is Singapore a First World Country?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is Singapore a first world country?”

The terms “First World” was coined at the beginning of the Cold War, and referred to countries that were aligned with the United States.  The Warsaw Pact nations and the Communist bloc were “Second World”, and the non-aligned nations lead by countries such as Indonesia and the former Yugoslavia, were “Third World”.

Politically, Singapore was officially Third World, in that it belonged to the Non-Aligned Movement, and has been a member since 1970.  This was also because ASEAN sought to be neutral in the superpower conflict.  In reality, in terms of defence policy, trade agreements and voting record, Singapore was always very much part of the First World.

After the end of the Cold War, the term changed meaning, to refer generally to nations that were democracies, capitalist economies and stable states. In that sense, Singapore is very much First World.  It is a developed nation, and has been classified as such, by some supranational organisations, since the 1980s.  Singapore scores very high on the Human Development Index.  It is the only developed nation in Southeast Asia.

Some commentators have noted that Singapore is not part of the OECD.  Membership of the OECD is not a prerequisite to being a developed nation.  Whilst every one of the 36 members of the OECD are considered developed nations - some of them barely - not every developed nation is part of the OECD.