What characteristics do developing countries share? How do they differ?

Common characteristics of developing countries:
- low standard of living (i.e. too many without access to clean water, fighting diarrheal disease, losing children to "preventable" diseases like smallbox or cholera)
- high growth rate of population and, thus, high dependency ratios (% non-working due to age/%working)
- low productivity per worker
- high unemployment
- domination by "rich" countries like the US, EU, Japan
- too much focus on raw materials / agricultural sector
- presence of black markets

Differences between developing countries:
- physical geography
          - size : Sudan vs. Lesotho
          - endowment of natural resources : Nigeria (rich) vs. Bangladesh (poor)
          - history : type of colonization : Canada (neo-Europes) vs. Vietnam (extractive) *See Schmidt's MSc thesis in economics and history: see post from 1/1/10 (first post on blog)
          - demographic factors: religion (Islamic Oman, Christian Bolivia) and racial/ethnic (Cambodia vs. Nicaragua)
          - GDP per capita (Mexico - higher vs. Sierra Leone - lower)
          - type of industry (Bangladesh - agriculture, Maldives - tourism)
          - political structure (Iran - theocracy, India - democracy, Myanmar - military junta, Tonga - monarchy, single party - Cuba)

LINK: UNDP for Beginners - UNDP for Beginners