Developed countries in the context of "Occupational licensing"

In economics, the primary sector is the economic sector which comprises industry involved in the extraction and production of raw materials, such as farming, logging, fishing, forestry and mining. The primary sector tends to make up a larger portion of the economy in developing countries than it does in developed countries. For example, in 2018, agriculture, forestry, and fishing comprised more than 15% of GDP in sub-Saharan Africa but less than 1% of GDP in North America.

In developed countries the primary sector has become more technologically advanced, enabling for example the mechanization of farming, as compared with lower-tech methods in poorer countries. More developed economies may invest additional capital in primary means of production: for example, in the United States Corn Belt, combine harvesters pick the corn, and sprayers spray large amounts of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides, producing a higher yield than is possible using less capital-intensive techniques. These technological advances and investment allow the primary sector to employ a smaller workforce, so developed countries tend to have a smaller percentage of their workforce involved in primary activities, instead having a higher percentage involved in the secondary and tertiary sectors.

A developing country is a country with a less-developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreement on which countries fit this category. The terms low-and middle-income country (LMIC) and newly emerging economy (NEE) are often used interchangeably but they refer only to the economy of the countries. The World Bank classifies the world's economies into four groups, based on gross national income per capita: high-, upper-middle-, lower-middle-, and low-income countries. Least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and small island developing states are all sub-groupings of developing countries. Countries on the other end of the spectrum are usually referred to as high-income countries or developed countries.

There are controversies over the terms' use, as some feel that it perpetuates an outdated concept of "us" and "them". In 2015, the World Bank declared that the "developing/developed world categorization" had become less relevant and that they would phase out the use of that descriptor. Instead, their reports will present data aggregations for regions and income groups. The term "Global South" is used by some as an alternative term to developing countries.

The Anglosphere, also known as the Anglo-American world, is a Western-led sphere of influence among Anglophone countries. The core group of this sphere of influence comprises five developed countries that maintain close social, cultural, political, economic, and military ties with each other: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Although extended definitions do include non-Western and developing countries that were once part of the British Empire and retained English influence and common law upon independence, the Anglosphere is a distinct grouping that is not simply synonymous with countries in which the English language has official status.

Anglosphere countries are generally aligned with each other on global issues and collaborate extensively in matters of security, as exemplified by alliances like Five Eyes. The core countries of the Anglosphere are either NATO members or designated by the United States as major non-NATO allies.

In trade, barter (derived from bareter) is a system of exchange in which participants in a transaction directly exchange goods or services for other goods or services without using a medium of exchange, such as money. Barter is considered one of the earliest systems of economic exchange, used before the invention of money. Economists usually distinguish barter from gift economies in many ways; barter, for example, features immediate reciprocal exchange, not one delayed in time. Barter usually takes place on a bilateral basis, but may be multilateral (if it is mediated through a trade exchange). In most developed countries, barter usually exists parallel to monetary systems only to a very limited extent. Market actors use barter as a replacement for money as the method of exchange in times of monetary crisis, such as when currency becomes unstable (such as hyperinflation or a deflationary spiral) or simply unavailable for conducting commerce.

No ethnographic studies have shown that any present or past society has used barter without any other medium of exchange or measurement, and anthropologists have found no evidence that money emerged from barter. Nevertheless, economists since the times of Adam Smith (1723–1790) often imagined pre-modern societies for the sake of showing how the inefficiency of barter explains the emergence of money and the economy, and hence the discipline of economics itself.