Category Archives: Europe

The Most Expensive Office Locations by Country

World's most expensive office locations

Expensive office locations around the world share similar characteristics: they are located in premier trade and financial centers, they are sites for corporate headquarters, they are located in areas where property availability is scarce and therefore expensive, and they are located close to their most wealthy customers.

As we can see in the map above, the most expensive office spaces are located in Europe, Asia and the United States. London’s St. James area leads as the most expensive location for office space. London is followed by Hong Kong’s Central area, Beijing’s Finance Street, Geneva’s Rue du Rhône, and Silicon Valley’s Menlo Park.

Source: LinkedIn: Paying the Rent: The World’s 12 Most Expensive Office Locations

 

Things Each Country Leads the World In

what each country leads the world in

Each country leads the world in different things, from good to bad things to awkward ones.

According to the map above, France leads the world in tourism, India in making movies, Saudi Arabia in oil reserves, the United States in producing Nobel laureates, Greece in olive oil consumption, Switzerland in the rate of employment, Norway in democracy, Brazil in FIFA world cup titles, and Costa Rica in happiness, to name a few.

Other countries lead in not so positive things. For example, Russia leads in the number of nuclear warheads, China in carbon emissions, Afghanistan in opium production, North Korea in censorship, and Yemen in gender inequality.

Among the awkward we find Venezuela leading in the number of miss universe titles, Argentina in exporting soccer players, Netherlands in the tallest people, Iran in the highest brain drain, Sweden in atheism, and Mexico in lightning strikes.

Source: Policy Mic: This Map Shows the Weird Things Each Country Leads the World In

 

Internet Population and Penetration by Country

internet population and penetration

An estimated one third of the world population is connected to the internet while the remaining two thirds do not have have access to it yet, according to the website Information Geographies.

As shown in the map above, the distortion in the size of China points out the fact that it is the country with the largest number of internet users, roughly 500 million people. China is followed by the United States, India, and Japan, among others.

Countries with the largest internet penetration, the percentage of the population of each country connected to the internet, include Canada, Great Britain, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, South Korea, Germany, Finland, Qatar, and New Zealand.

Source: Information Geographies: Internet Population and Penetration

 

Freedom on the Net 2013

freedom on the net 2013

Freedom House has conducted a study on internet freedom in 60 countries across the globe.

What the authors of the study found is that global internet freedom has deteriorated in the last three years as a consequence of the increase of laws and regulations that try to limit free speech on the web.

An estimated 34 countries have seen a decline in internet freedom since 2012 including Vietnam, Ethiopia, Pakistan, and Venezuela. On the other hand, 16 countries have seen an improvement in internet freedom, among them Morocco, Burma, and Tunisia. Despite those improvements, limits on internet freedom are still rampant in many countries that make the list, where censorship, threats, and murder of bloggers and users who post information governments see as a threat continues.

Source: Freedom House: Freedom on the Net 2013

 

Most Visited Website per Country

most visited website per country

Google, Facebook, and Chinese search engine Baidu are the top three most visited websites in the world.

Using freely available website traffic statistics from Alexa, the authors of the map above found that most people in North America, Europe, South East Asia, and Oceania prefer Google. Due to the large number of Internet users in China and South Korea combined, an estimated one billion users, Baidu is the most visited website behind Google. Facebook comes in third with an estimated 280 million users spread from Latin America to the Middle East.

Source: Information Geographies: Age of Internet Empires

 

Europe’s Loss-Making Cars

europe biggest loss-making cars 2013

European car makers are having a hard time with some of their models, which have generated big losses for the industry in the region. Here is a chart that shows European car manufacturers, their respective loss-making models, and how much money they lost per model.

Source: The Economist: Zoom, sputter, aagghhh!! – The biggest loss-making cars in Europe

 

The Most Honest Cities in the World

TheLostWalletExperiment

Reader’s Digest conducted an experiment where a total of 192 wallets were lost in 16 cities around the world, about 12 wallets per city, to see how many of those would be returned to their rightful owners. Each wallet contained cash, credit cards, and the owner’s contact information.

The results show the most honest cities as Helsinki (Finland) and Mumbai (India). On the other hand, cities where the fewer number of lost wallets were returned to their owners include Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Zurich (Switzerland), Madrid (Spain), and Lisbon (Portugal).

Source: International Business Times: Most Honest Cities In The World: The Lost Wallet Experiment [Infographic]

 

The Higher Cost of Higher Education

higher-education-international-studentsStudying abroad can be very expensive, specially if you are looking at universities in Australia or the United States.

The average cost of higher education for international students is very high in Australia, where a student is expected to pay a total of $38,516 in annual fees and cost of living. Australia is followed by the U.S. where the average cost of one year of higher education is estimated at $35,705. Other countries with a steep tab on higher education include the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

On the other hand, more affordable higher education can be found in Germany, where the average cost of one year of college annual fees plus cost of living is estimated at $6,285. Other countries with affordable higher education include Spain, Taiwan, China, and Russia.

Source: International Business Times- International Students: Higher Education Is Really Inexpensive In Germany, But Not In The US [CHARTS]

 

Deaths by Hepatitis vs. Deaths by HIV by Country

hepatitis and hiv world HIV killed 1.47 million people in 2010. Viral hepatitis killed as many as 1.44 million people in the same year. Even though the number of deaths caused by viral hepatitis follows close that of HIV, its impact goes largely ignored worldwide.

According to The Economist, viral hepatitis killed more people in 117 out of 187 countries, including China, India, Japan, and the UK. In the map above, countries in dark red show a higher ratio of deaths by viral hepatitis to deaths caused by HIV. Those countries include Egypt, Mongolia, UK, Turkey, Yemen, Iraq, South and North Korea, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Poland, and Germany.

Source: The Economist: The other killer – Hepatitis kills more people than HIV in most countries

 

 

Writing Systems of the World

writing systems of the worldThis map published by the Washington Post shows the different writing systems used around the world.

The Latin alphabet is by far the most common used alphabet, from Europe to the Americas to Africa and Australia. The two other writing systems widely used are Arabic, used in the Middle East and Northern Africa, and Cyrillic used in Russia and other countries formerly part of the Soviet Union.