The World Bank stopped using a binary categorization of countries in 2016: https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/opendata/2016-edition-world-development-indicato

The World Bank stopped using a binary categorization of countries in 2016: https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/opendata/2016-edition-world-development-indicators-out-three-features-you-won-t-want-miss https://blogs.worldbank.org/opendata/opendata/2016-edition-w... > Therefore, In WDI 2016, there is no longer a distinction between developing countries (defined in previous editions as low- and middle-income countries) and developed countries (previously high-income countries). Regional groupings (such as “East Asia”) are now based on geographical coverage rather than a sub-set of countries that were previously referred to as developing. In some occasional cases, where data availability or context have dictated it, we’ve excluded high income from some charts or tables, and we’ve indicated that in the footnotes. That's when it defined China as "upper middle income." That's based on Gross National Income per capita, as the World Bank calculated it. The thresholds are updated every year and adjusted for inflation. By the World Bank's definition, China was: low-income from 87-98 (except 97, when it was lower-middle) lower-middle from 99-09 upper-middle thereafter There are 56 upper-middle-income countries right now, out of 218 countries. Brazil, Kazakhstan, Libya, Malaysia, Cuba, Mexico are all upper-middle-income countries by the World Bank's latest definition.