Geography and Wealth

Geography and wealth have long been perceived as correlated attributes of nations. The continents along the equator, Africa and South America, are the poorest. Even within Africa and South America this effect can be seen, as the nations farthest from the equator are wealthier. In Africa the wealthiest nations are the three on the southern tip of the continent, South Africa, Botswana, and Namibia, and the countries of North Africa. Similarly in Latin America Argentina, Peru, Chile, and Uruguay have long been the wealthiest. Within Asia, Indonesia, located on the equator, is among the poorest. Within Central Asia, Kazakhstan is wealthier than other former Soviet Republics which border it to the south, like Uzbekistan. The wealthiest nations of the world with the highest standard of living tend to be those at the northern extreme of areas open to human habitation, Canada, and the Nordic Countries. Within the wealthy continents, and even within large countries, wealth increases with distance from the equator. Southern Europe has long been poorer than its northern counterpart, as has the Southern United States.

Researchers at Harvard's Center for International Development (CID) found in 2001 that only three tropical economies — Hong Kong, Singapore, and part of Taiwan — were classified as high-income by the World Bank, while all countries within regions zoned as temperate had either middle- or low-income economies.

There are exceptions, for example, Russia is less well off than the United States, or even Australia; the latter country is wealthier than Southern Europe. Also, within Russia, Moscow and especially St. Petersburg are wealthier than, for example, Siberia. Similarly, Germany's poorest regions are situated in the North East. The wealthiest nations of Central America are generally those closest to the equator, namely Panama and Costa Rica, and Mongolia is poorer than China. And in south-east Asia, the richest nations are Malaysia and Thailand, straddling the equator.