Slogging Through Stats

We're... Number One...in... what?

Americans are often told by politicians and talk show hosts among others that ours is the greatest country on the face of the earth. There are many great things about America. We live in a multi-cultural society that for the most part works well. We have an abundance of land with plenty of room to spread our wings or where we can grow practically every type of fruit and vegetable. The food here is great, thanks also to the richness of cultural diversity.

Yes, it's great here in America. We can mountain climb, mountain ski, white water raft, ride the dunes on a buggy (in Michigan) and gamble our way through the Nevada desert while visiting Venice or Luxor. We can peer into one of the world's most spectacular gorges, Grand Canyon, or watch in wonder as one of only three Old Faithfuls in the world erupts in beauty and on schedule.

Little wonder then that a majority of Americans see no reason to travel to sights abroad. As a matter of fact, in 2006 America was ranked 3rd as most visited country in the world... so world travellers agree that there is plenty to see and do here.

On the other hand we do have our... um...issues. We rank first in incarcerations and have the largest prison population. We rank first in pollution though we are only 5 per cent of the world population. We are first in oil import and consumption and our citizens are fattest in the world. We score first place in external debt. We rank first in military expenditures, though we have the world's sixth largest army.

One of the more astonishing rankings I ran across was for democracy. Ironically, the United States of America ranks 15th on the most democratic countries list. On that list Finland ranks first in democracy.

other ranking resources:
http://www.solarenergy.org
CIA-The World Fact Book




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