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Development stage

Where an economy sits on the long path from farm to factory to services, read from income, structure, cities and health.

W. W. Rostow’s stages of growth, read through the structural-change measures of Simon Kuznets and Hollis Chenery and the World Bank’s income tiers. Rostow named five stages; Palanor merges his first two, which the data cannot tell apart.

Stages describe where a country sits against its own past and other countries. They are not ratings: no stage is better or worse than another, and Palanor never sorts countries by one.

Publishing stages · 71 countries · yearly, 1990 on · method v1, pre-registered 2026-10-22

Passes the pre-registered episode check: 7 of 7 episodes read as expected (0 missed, 0 untestable).

The stages

  1. 1. Pre-take-off

    Most output and work are still on the land; incomes are low and most people live outside cities.

  2. 2. Take-off

    Industry and cities are pulling people off the land; incomes are rising from a low base.

  3. 3. Drive to maturity

    Industry and services carry most output; incomes are middling and most people live in cities.

  4. 4. High mass consumption

    Incomes are high, farming is a sliver of output and services lead.

Drive to maturity96% · coverage 100% · as of 2025-12-31

Drive to maturity. 3 of 5 indicators that speak to this stage sit at or near its range. GDP per person (2021 PPP $) reads $30,863, within $12,000 – $40,000. Urban population, % disagrees at 89.2%, reading as High mass consumption.

EvidenceValueAs ofReads as
GDP per person (2021 PPP $)$30,8632025stage 3
Agriculture, % of GDP3.45%2025stage 4
Services, % of GDP55.5%2025stage 3
Urban population, %89.2%2025stage 4
Life expectancy (years)81.42024stage 4

Where each country has been

One row per country, alphabetical; one cell per year, shaded by the leading stage. Hatched cells were withheld: too little of the evidence was published to place the country. Select a country for its reading and evidence.

Country19901995200020052010201520202025Latest
ArgentinaDrive to maturity 2025
AustraliaHigh mass consumption 2025
AustriaHigh mass consumption 2025
BahrainHigh mass consumption 2025
BelgiumHigh mass consumption 2025
BoliviaDrive to maturity 2025
BrazilDrive to maturity 2025
BulgariaHigh mass consumption 2025
CanadaHigh mass consumption 2025
ChileDrive to maturity 2025
ChinaDrive to maturity 2025
ColombiaDrive to maturity 2025
Costa RicaDrive to maturity 2025
CroatiaHigh mass consumption 2025
CyprusHigh mass consumption 2025
CzechiaHigh mass consumption 2025
DenmarkHigh mass consumption 2025
DR CongoTake-off 2025
EcuadorDrive to maturity 2025
EgyptTake-off 2025
EstoniaHigh mass consumption 2025
EthiopiaPre-take-off 2025
FinlandHigh mass consumption 2025
FranceHigh mass consumption 2025
GermanyHigh mass consumption 2025
GreeceHigh mass consumption 2025
HungaryHigh mass consumption 2025
IcelandHigh mass consumption 2025
IndiaTake-off 2025
IndonesiaTake-off 2025
IranDrive to maturity 2025
IraqDrive to maturity 2025
IrelandHigh mass consumption 2025
IsraelHigh mass consumption 2025
ItalyHigh mass consumption 2025
JapanHigh mass consumption 2025
JordanDrive to maturity 2025
KuwaitHigh mass consumption 2025
LatviaDrive to maturity 2025
LithuaniaHigh mass consumption 2025
LuxembourgHigh mass consumption 2025
MaltaHigh mass consumption 2025
MexicoDrive to maturity 2025
NamibiaTake-off 2025
NetherlandsHigh mass consumption 2025
New ZealandHigh mass consumption 2025
NorwayHigh mass consumption 2025
OmanHigh mass consumption 2025
PanamaHigh mass consumption 2025
ParaguayDrive to maturity 2025
PeruDrive to maturity 2025
PolandHigh mass consumption 2025
PortugalHigh mass consumption 2025
QatarHigh mass consumption 2025
RomaniaDrive to maturity 2025
RussiaHigh mass consumption 2025
Saudi ArabiaHigh mass consumption 2025
Sierra LeonePre-take-off 2025
SlovakiaHigh mass consumption 2025
SloveniaHigh mass consumption 2025
South AfricaDrive to maturity 2025
South KoreaHigh mass consumption 2025
SpainHigh mass consumption 2025
SwedenHigh mass consumption 2025
SwitzerlandHigh mass consumption 2025
TurkeyHigh mass consumption 2025
United Arab EmiratesHigh mass consumption 2025
United KingdomHigh mass consumption 2025
United StatesHigh mass consumption 2025
UruguayDrive to maturity 2025
ZambiaTake-off 2025
Pre-take-offTake-offDrive to maturityHigh mass consumptionWithheld

How it is read

Each indicator has a range for every stage it speaks to, in its own units. A value inside a range counts fully for that stage and less the further outside it falls. Stage fits become probabilities; the leading stage is published only when at least 60% of the indicator weight is readable and fresh, a strong stage’s named evidence agrees (gates), and a challenger leads the current stage by 15 points before the call changes.

IndicatorWeightPre-take-offTake-offDrive to maturityHigh mass consumption
GDP per person (2021 PPP $)35%< $5,000$4,000 – $15,000$12,000 – $40,000> $35,000
Agriculture, % of GDP24%> 22.0%10.0% – 28.0%3.5% – 12.0%< 5.0%
Services, % of GDP12%< 45.0%38.0% – 55.0%48.0% – 65.0%> 60.0%
Urban population, %18%< 35.0%28.0% – 55.0%50.0% – 80.0%> 70.0%
Life expectancy (years)12%< 62.058.0 – 72.068.0 – 79.0> 76.0

Gates: Pre-take-off needs agriculture, % of gdp at or near its range; High mass consumption needs gdp per person (2021 ppp $) at or near its range.

The publish gate

Before any reading was computed, Palanor named known episodes and the stages they should read as. A schema publishes stages only if at least two episodes read as expected and hits outnumber misses. Misses stay on this page.

EpisodeExpectedRead (years)Outcome
South Korea, 1990–1995Drive to maturityDrive to maturity 6hit
South Korea, 2010–2024High mass consumptionHigh mass consumption 15hit
China, 1990–1999Pre-take-off or Take-offTake-off 8, Pre-take-off 2hit
China, 2018–2024Drive to maturityDrive to maturity 7hit
India, 2010–2024Take-offTake-off 15hit
Ethiopia, 1995–2010Pre-take-offPre-take-off 16hit
Japan, 1995–2024High mass consumptionHigh mass consumption 30hit

What it cannot see

Rostow’s sequence is a description, not a law: oil exporters can be rich with small service sectors, and a stage says nothing about whether the path was a good one. Income is GDP per person at 2021 purchasing-power prices, which averages over inequality.

References

  1. W. W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (1960).
  2. Simon Kuznets, Modern Economic Growth: Rate, Structure and Spread (1966).
  3. Hollis Chenery and Moshe Syrquin, Patterns of Development, 1950–1970 (1975).
  4. World Bank, World Bank country classifications by income level (2025).

Recomputed weekly · last 2026-10-22 · signals country.<iso3>.schema.development.stage and .position · How Country Schemas work

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