Category Archives: Pakistan

Percentage of the Population Living on $2 or Less a Day

surviving on a few dollars per day worldMIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo, conducted surveys in developing nations to see which countries survive on a few dollars per day. The cities or countries where people are known to live on meager dollar amounts on a daily bases are not that surprising, but the percentage of the population living under these conditions is.

In Udaipur and Hyderabad (India) a staggering 94% of the population survive on $2 or less per day. In Bangladesh, 69.4% go on $2 or less per day. In Ghana, 67.7% survive on $2 or less per day. In Guatemala, 64.8% of the population survive on $2 or less per day.

Source: GOOD: Living on Less

 

Elimination of Chemical Weapons Worldwide

elimination of chemical weapons worldThe Organization for the Proliferation of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was created to oversee the elimination of existing chemical weapons and monitor the chemical industry to prevent the production of additional chemical weapons. The OPCW was created in 1997 in The Hague, Netherlands, with support from the United Nations (UN).

The OPCW has 188 members states, signatories of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Nations that did not sign the CWC include Syria, Egypt, South Sudan, Somalia, Angola, and North Korea. Myanmar signed it, but it has not ratified it to date.

As of 2012, 71% of global stockpiles of chemical weapons have been destroyed, 46% of the total amount of chemical munitions have been eliminated, and 100% of the chemical plants producing chemical weapons have been decommissioned.

Source: Ria Novosti News Agency: Infographics – Elimination of Chemical Weapons in the World

 

Body Mass Index (BMI) by Country

A body mass index (BMI) between 18.5 and 24.9 is usually considered a healthy body weight to height relationship. A BMI of 25 or higher indicates body weight not optimal for the height of a particular person.

This visualization published by Visual.ly, shows the different BMI values for adult men and women across the globe.

Countries with a healthy average BMI between 20 and 22.9 include several nations in Africa, Yemen, India, Thailand, Japan, Pakistan, Singapore, among others.

Countries with an average BMI between 23 and 24.9 include several Asian nations, several European nations (including France), some nations in Africa, and Honduras.

Countries with an average BMI between 25 and 26.9 include Canada, Russia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Israel, Austria, Switzerland, Brazil, all Nordic countries, Spain, Portugal, and nations in the Middle East.

Countries with an average BMI of 27 and over  (the highest BMI range) include the United States, Kuwait, Cuba, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela, Australia, UK, New Zealand, Greece, and Germany to name a few.

 

Human Development Index 2012

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a composite measure that includes three indicators: life expectancy at birth, level of education attained, and income. The HDI is an alternative to the purely economical GDP, that quantifies economic growth only. Thus, the HDI provide a way to gauge the development of a country. The HDI for 2012 includes 187 countries.

The HDI ranks countries according to their degree of development using a scale from 0 to1, 0 being the least developed and 1 being the most developed country.

In the HDI map above, published by the Brazilian media site Globo.com we find that Norway has a score of 0.955, ranking number one as the most developed country (color green). Norway is followed by Australia, the U.S., the Netherlands, Germany, New Zealand, among others.

At the other end of the spectrum we find the least developed nations (color purple), including the majority of African nations, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Papua New Guinea.

 

Drone Attacks Visualized

click to enlarge

The use of drones to eliminate enemy targets has become routine practice for U.S. military operations since 2004, specially in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pitch Interactive has created the visualization above, showing the number of drone attacks since 2004 to date, as well as the number of casualties. Of an estimated 3,105 casualties, 175 were children (5.6%), 535 were civilians (17.2%), and 2,348 (75.6%) were casualties classified as other, which can include male able-bodied enemy combatants, their neighbors, and possible militants.

Data for this visualization was obtained by Pitch Interactive from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism,  the New America Foundation, and Living Under Drones.

 

 

Expected Years of Schooling for Females Worldwide

The expected years of schooling for females varies from country to country.

Developed nations such as the United States, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Norway, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, etc., show the highest number of expected years of schooling (15 to 21 years) for girls. Other nations in this group include Argentina, Uruguay, Kazakhstan, Libya, and South Korea.

On the other hand, countries with the lowest number of expected years of schooling (0 to 8 years) for females include most African countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Papua New Guinea.

Resource: The World Bank DataBank: Gender Statistics – Expected years of schooling for females

Mortality Numbers for Children Under Five

In 2011, 6.9 million children under five years old died around the globe from different causes ranging from pneumonia, malaria, diarrhea, HIV/AIDS, meningitis, to all kinds of injuries.

The number of deaths of children under five has decreased by 59% in the last forty years, from 16.9 million back in 1970 to 6.9 million in 2011. That is good news for the world in general; however, there are still regions in the planet where under-five mortality rates have changed hardly at all. That is the case of Africa, where countries with the highest under-five mortality rates include Sierra Leone, Somalia, Mali, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, and Angola. In other parts of the world, countries with high under-five mortality rates include Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Haiti and Bolivia.

Income is a critical factor influencing under-five mortality rates, as shown in the graph above. The larger the income per capita of a nation, the lower the mortality rate. Such is the case of developed economies like Luxembourg or Norway, in stark contrast with developing countries like Somalia or Sierra Leone, where income per capita is very low.

Source: Health Intelligence: Under-five Mortality dashboard

 

Women in Front-Line Combat Roles Worldwide

Women are not allowed to take part in front-line combat roles in most nations. According to the map shown above, published by the Washington Post, front-line combat positions for women are permitted mostly in western nations.

Countries that formally allow women in combat positions (red) include: Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Eritrea, Israel, North Korea, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, where the ban on women in front-line combat has been recently lifted.

Countries where women are formally allowed in other major combat roles (orange), such as artillery and fighter pilots, include: the United Kingdom, Serbia, South Africa, Pakistan and South Korea.

 

The Best and Worst Places to be Born in 2013

Back in 1988, the United States was ranked first as the best country to be born. Twenty five years later, the U.S. is ranked number 16.

The Economist Intelligence Unit compiled the where-to-be-born index which measures which country will provide the best opportunities to someone born in 2013. It links the results of life satisfaction surveys to indicators that affect the quality of life in those countries, such as geography, demographics, culture, government policies, the economy, etc.

Based on those factors, the best places to be born are Switzerland, Australia followed by Norway, Sweden Denmark, and Singapore. At the bottom of the list you will find Nigeria, Kenya, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Angola, Pakistan, among others.

 

Terrorism Around the World

The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) ranks 158 countries based on the impact of terrorism in each of these countries. The rankings goes from 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest impact of terrorism and 10 the highest impact of terrorism. For 2011, the countries ranked at the top are Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, followed by Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, Thailand, Russia, the Philippines, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia and Syria.

The GTI uses four indicators to measure the impact of terrorism: number of incidents, number of deaths, injuries and property damage. A five year weighted average is also used in order to measure the lasting impact of terrorism in a particular country.

For more details see: Vision of Humanity – Global Terrorism Index