The underdevelopment is the state of a being or of an organisation (e.g. a country) that has not reached its maturity.

It is often used for economic underdevelopment, and then means poverty. This concept is purely economic and does not include the overall human and social development, which includes acces to health care, to drinkable water, to food, to education... It also introduces an ordering between the nations, an ordering based on the reference of a small group of countries (called the "developed nations").

In the mid-1990s, a new word arose to express a wider point of view, including the human and social elements, and to avoid this classification: maldevelopment.

See also

• Economics
• Economic development
• Developed nation
• Developing nation