Summary Intensive care units (ICUs) are the place in a hospital where critically ill patients with life-threatening conditions are treated. Therefore, ICUs require many resources and a high ratio of qualified staffing. Due to these requirements, ICU management is costly for hospitals and healthcare networks. Given these high costs and differences in income across countries, it is likely that countries with a lower income face more challenges in providing this type of care. The ICU profile is a broad term encompassing the combination of resources, staffing, organization, structure, policies, and patient demographics that characterize a certain ICU or the collective intensive care network of a region. We used this as a central definition to assess intensive care provision. The World Bank Classification categorizes countries based on income into High-Income Countries (HICs), Upper-Middle-Income Countries (UMICs), Lower-Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) and Low-Income Countries (LICs). Up until now, there were no summaries exploring ICU profiles based on the average income of countries. Given the financial burden associated with ICU maintenance, we suspected differences in ICU profiles based on income and the fraction of money invested in healthcare. With this study, we aimed to provide an overview of ICU profiles and their research according to the World Bank Classification. We explored multiple databases to find as much data as possible regarding adult, non-specialized ICU characteristics using a search window between 2010 and 2019, to avoid the high amount of COVID-19 related publications dealing with specific pandemic-related adaptations in ICU design and organization. After exclusion of non-relevant publications, 120 articles were selected and data about ICU profiles was extracted. To analyze ICU patient demographics, we used data collected from an international study called (i.e. called DecubICUs, NCT03270345) conducted on 15 May 2018. Data from the articles represented 81 countries, while DecubICUs represented 90 countries. Analysis of this data suggested associations between the amount of research, ICU resources, ICU organization, patient age and ICU mortality rate and income. However, making international comparisons proved challenging due to differences in definitions of aspects related to ICU profiles and in way of reporting those aspects, preventing us from using statistics to validate these findings accurately. For other aspects, we did not find enough information to be able to draw general conclusions. Value & Impact This study found major gaps in ICU profiles and its research, correlating with income on a global scale. This could impact ICU profiles research by shifting focus towards these gaps and eventually lead to the creation of national and international databases and registries. Despite being known that ICU organization plays a key role in patient outcomes, this study found a lack of research on this topic. Additionally, this study confirmed the variety in definitions and ways of reporting which make international comparisons challenging. Therefore, these insights should have an impact on future studies by highlighting the need for standardized research of these aspects. Comparison with post-COVID-19 pandemic ICU profiles and specialized unit profiles could also lead to valuable insights. Lastly, we identified other trends, resulting in the creation of new potential concepts such as the ‘turning point’ concept, in which the intensive care network prioritizes efficiency instead of capacity after realizing that there are already enough resources available. Further research and validation of this concept could have an impact on the way that developing countries manage their intensive care resources, potentially saving these valuable resources to be used to improve patient outcomes elsewhere.