Final answer:
An underdeveloped country faces numerous challenges such as high birth and mortality rates, limited healthcare and education, restricted technology, and often economic restrictions due to natural resources, culture or geography, leading to reduced overall quality of life.
Step-by-step explanation:
For a country to be seen as underdeveloped means it has not made significant progress in indicators of economic prosperity, mortality, and demographics. These countries typically experience high birth rates, high mortality rates, shorter life expectancies, less healthcare, fewer educational opportunities, and restricted technology access. Additionally, underdeveloped nations often have limited natural resources, challenging climates and geographies, and may experience cultural or religious barriers that prevent certain groups, like women, from participating in the economy and education. Over time, terms like developing and less developed have replaced Third World to describe such countries, reflecting a more inclusive and less ethnocentric viewpoint of global inequality.