Defining the category of ‘small’ states

There is no widely accepted definition of a small state. Most previous definitions have been based upon arbitrarily chosen cut‐off values of selected criteria. The present study attempts to categorize the size of 190 states according to population, land area and total income. An initial categorization is based upon observation of each series to identify discontinuities in the distributions. Cluster analysis is then employed to identify groups of countries that share similar size‐related characteristics. A classification based on non‐hierarchical cluster analysis is proposed, generating four clusters from equally spaced initial cluster‐centres. On this basis, 79 countries are classified as ‘small’. The reasons for deviation from recent categorizations of small countries are explored, the primary cause being the inclusion of some countries with very low levels of income.