CIA World Fact Book
Mar. 24th, 2008 02:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eI've always been a bit of a fan of the CIA's World Fact Book. Say what you want about the organisation's troublesome morals, they are good cataloguers of information. I downloaded the latest (2008!) copy last night because I needed some good vector maps and they include pdf maps in the appendix. (I hate pdf, but beggars can't be choosers.) Anyway, I was spending time I shouldn't have browsing the fact book itself and noticed an interesting thing. The summary at the beginning of each country's chapter, and at the head of each part inside that chapter doesn't necessarily reflect the statistics that follow.
For instance, based upon the summaries you could be forgiven for thinking that the USA has a wonderful level of employment, Australia has an acceptable one and that Sweden's is at dangerous levels. Actually, the fact book gives the figures for unemployment rate at:
USA 4.6%
Sweden 4.5%
Australia 4.4%
Likewise the glowing report on the USA's economy would lead you to believe they are a shining example of dynamism, and Sweden verging on stagnation. Here is the GDP:
USA 2.2%
Sweden 3.4%
Australia 4%
Of course that is just how the money side of things work, and that doesn't necessarily relate to how well off the humans are. The number of people living below the poverty level is a better indicator of that:
USA 12%
Sweden -
Australia -
The figures for Australia have to be pretty shonky because I consider myself below the poverty line, and there are people worse off than I am, but on the whole I have to say I lead a quite luxurious existence because my lifestyle requires very little money. Pity the USA though, where an 8th of the population lives below the poverty level! And given the employment figures, most of those below the poverty line must be working. What a horrid existence that would be -- to be an indentured wage slave with no way out and still stuck below the poverty line.
Two other guides to how good life might be are infant mortality and life expectancy:
Infant mortality (deaths per 1000 live births):
USA 6.37
Sweden 2.76
Australia 4.57
Life expectancy:
USA 78
Sweden 80.63
Australia 80.62
How is health hampered by religious intolerance?
AIDS prevalence in adult population:
USA 0.6%
Sweden 0.1%
Australia 0.1%
So... download the CIA World Fact Book. It is a goldmine of information, but do read further than the biased summaries.
Oh, the address?
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
You can refer online or download it.
For instance, based upon the summaries you could be forgiven for thinking that the USA has a wonderful level of employment, Australia has an acceptable one and that Sweden's is at dangerous levels. Actually, the fact book gives the figures for unemployment rate at:
USA 4.6%
Sweden 4.5%
Australia 4.4%
Likewise the glowing report on the USA's economy would lead you to believe they are a shining example of dynamism, and Sweden verging on stagnation. Here is the GDP:
USA 2.2%
Sweden 3.4%
Australia 4%
Of course that is just how the money side of things work, and that doesn't necessarily relate to how well off the humans are. The number of people living below the poverty level is a better indicator of that:
USA 12%
Sweden -
Australia -
The figures for Australia have to be pretty shonky because I consider myself below the poverty line, and there are people worse off than I am, but on the whole I have to say I lead a quite luxurious existence because my lifestyle requires very little money. Pity the USA though, where an 8th of the population lives below the poverty level! And given the employment figures, most of those below the poverty line must be working. What a horrid existence that would be -- to be an indentured wage slave with no way out and still stuck below the poverty line.
Two other guides to how good life might be are infant mortality and life expectancy:
Infant mortality (deaths per 1000 live births):
USA 6.37
Sweden 2.76
Australia 4.57
Life expectancy:
USA 78
Sweden 80.63
Australia 80.62
How is health hampered by religious intolerance?
AIDS prevalence in adult population:
USA 0.6%
Sweden 0.1%
Australia 0.1%
So... download the CIA World Fact Book. It is a goldmine of information, but do read further than the biased summaries.
Oh, the address?
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
You can refer online or download it.
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-24 05:45 am (UTC)The infant mortality rate is way too high for sure. One of the reasons I'm sure is how the majority of births are handled. But also how many are poor. Harder to care for babies in stressful environments for sure.
That being said, I'd much rather live here than say, Africa.
I'm in a position to actually help there from here. Poor here and poor there mean entirely different things.
Anyhoo, thank you for reminding me of that resource. That's lovely.
I thought perhaps you might like this:
About This Video:
"http://www.ted.com
With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, Prof. Hans Rosling uses software from Gapminder debunks a few myths about the "developing" world. This global health visionary has discovered a powerful new way to communicate complex data about the world; his remarkable interactive graphs help deliver profound insights about global trends and will change forever the way you think about "us" and "them." Rosling is professor of international health at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, and founder of Gapminder, a nonprofit that brings vital global data to life. (Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA.) More TEDTalks at www.TED.com "
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Date: 2008-03-25 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-25 05:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-31 06:18 pm (UTC)BTW, Noelle, your LJ is glorious.
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Date: 2008-03-31 03:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-31 01:23 pm (UTC)