Category Archives: USA

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

Paid Maternity Leave Worldwide

Many developed nations provide paid maternity leave to their female employees. This is not the case for the United States.

According to this visualization by the Huffington Post, the UK provides the highest number of paid maternity leave days, 280 with 90% pay. Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Netherlands, Russia, South Korea, and Spain, offer maternity leave with 100% pay.

In the U.S., parents are guaranteed their jobs for 90 days while on maternity or paternity leave, but without pay. Other countries that do not provide paid maternity leave include Lesotho, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea, all developing nations.

 

Life Expectancy at Birth for Women

Life expectancy at birth, for women, varies significantly across the world.

On one side of the spectrum, we find nations where the life expectancy at birth for females is 80.5 years or more. Countries in this group include the United States, Canada, Chile, several developed nations in Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea.

On the other side, we find nations where the life expectancy at birth for females is much lower, 62.0 years or less. This group is comprised by the majority of African countries, with the exception of North African nations, and Afghanistan.

Resource: The World Bank DataBank: Gender Statistics – Life expectancy at birth, female (years)

 

Milk Consumption Per Capita Worldwide

Milk and milk products are consumed all over the world on a daily basis. As shown in the graph above, the largest consumers of milk in the Americas are the U.S., Canada, Nicaragua, and Argentina. In Europe the largest consumers of milk are Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal, Greece, and Kazakhstan. In Africa, we have Sudan and South Sudan. Australia is also one of the largest consumers of milk.

The consumption of milk in this map is defined as Kg. of milk consumed per person per year.

Resource: Food Beast: Map of Milk Consumption & Lactose Intolerance Around the World

 

U.S. Military Personnel Around the World

According to this map by Bloomberg, in 2012 approximately 12.5% of active-duty military personnel were stationed outside the United States, in places like Afghanistan, Turkey, Australia Canada, Greenland, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Egypt, Myanmar, South Korea, Greece and Western Europe.

The pie chart above shows the top 14 places where the U.S. has active duty soldiers stationed.

Resources:

 

 

Global Vitamin D Deficit

According to a 2010 infographic by Information is Beautiful, people inhabiting in the Northern hemisphere, more precisely above latitude 42°N, are not getting enough UVB light from sunlight to make vitamin D in the skin during winter season.

In the UK, 50% of the population has insufficient levels of vitamin D, while 16% of the population is severely deficient. In the United States, 77% of the population has insufficient levels of vitamin D, while 6% of the population is severely deficient. Within the U.S., the groups more affected by insufficient levels of vitamin D are Non-Hispanic blacks (98%) and Mexican Americans (90%).

To try compensate for the lack of UVB light in winter time and the consequent low vitamin D levels, consumers have turned to the vitamin D industry, an industry that is worth $460 million, as of 2009, in the U.S. alone.

For more graphics and statistics, visit: Information is Beautiful: Vitamin D

Ways of Transportation in Six Selected Cities

Interesting transportation patterns emerged from the 2012 LSE Cities conference, which focused in the way cities across the globe adjust to technological innovation and environmental changes.

The graph above displays transportation patterns for six selected cities: Bogota, Copenhagen, Hong Kong, London, New York, and Stockholm. Of the six selected cities, Hong Kong is where walking and biking are the most common ways of transportation, a good 44.7%, and where cars and other private motorized vehicles are used the least (7.2%). Copenhagen and London, are the cities where the most common way of transportation are cars and other private motorized vehicles (39.9% and 39.8% percent respectively). New York city and Bogota are the cities where public transportation is most commonly used (57.9% and 56% respectively). In Stockholm, all three ways of transportation (walking/biking, private cars, and public transportation) are used almost in similar proportion.

For more detailed information visit:

 

The Presence of McDonald’s Across the World

click to enlarge

One of the companies that symbolizes the dominance of US. corporations across the world is McDonald’s. McDonald’s is the second largest fast food chain in the world, according to a Nasdaq report for 2011, with more than 33,510 restaurants in 119 countries spread across all five continents.

The U.S. has the largest number of McDonald’s restaurants (13,381), followed by Japan (3,598), Canada (1,400), Germany (1,276), UK (1,250), and China (660).

The price of a McDonald’s burger is different in each country. According to the graph above, the most expensive ones can be found in Norway ($7.18), Denmark ($5.93), Iceland ($5.21), and in the Eurozone ($4.96). By comparison, the price of a McDonald’s burger in the U.S. is $3.57. These prices have been calculated using the Big Mac index published by The Economist, in order to measure the Purchasing Price Parity (PPP) between two currencies.

Resources:

  1. American Icons Temple: A Market-Dominant Minority that is McDonald’s
  2. Nasdaq: Subway tops McDonald’s for number of stores in world
  3. United States Securities and Exchange Commission – Form 10-K: McDonald’s Corporation
  4. The Economist: Big Mac Index

 

Food Exports and Imports Worldwide

Some countries are net exporters of food (their food exports are larger than their food imports) while others are net importers of food (their food imports are larger than their food exports).

Among the net exporters of food we find the majority of South American countries, with the exception of Venezuela and Suriname, the United States, Canada, Mauritania, Indonesia, Australia, and a few African countries such as Mauritania, Ivory Coast and Ghana. The largest net exporter of food, by far, is Argentina with $23.42 of food exports per every $1.00 of food imports. Argentina is followed by Brazil, New Zealand, Paraguay and Iceland.

Among the net importers of food we find countries such as Russia, Finland, Sweden, the UK, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Sudan, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Japan, etc. The largest net food importer is Eritrea, with $0.01 of food exports per every $1.00 of food imports. Eritrea is closely followed by Venezuela, Turkmenistan, and Algeria.

Data for for both agricultural exports and imports are for 2010.

Source: Slate.com: Maps: Agriculture in the U.S. and Around the World

 

Education Expenditure vs. Military Expenditure

This visualization by the Deutsche Welle, shows how much is spent in education versus how much is spent in the military, as a percentage of the GDP, worldwide.

The dividing line denotes equal expenditure in both education and the military. Most countries seem to be concentrated on the left side of the line, meaning they spend more in education than in defense. Countries in this group include the United States, Iran, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Canada, etc. The country that immediately grabs our attention is Cuba, showing the highest expenditure in education (about 13% of its GDP) relative to its expenditure in defense (about 4% of its GDP). Lesotho follows Cuba very closely.

On the right side of the dividing line, we have the nations spending more on the military relative to education spending. Countries in this group include: Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Israel, etc. It is worth noting that Oman shows the highest expenditure in defense (close to 12% of its GDP) relative to its expenditure in education (about 4% of its GDP). Saudi Arabia and Qatar follow Oman closely.

For more visualizations of education indicators worldwide, visit: Deutsche Welle: In Numbers: Education Around the World