...well, statistics, at any rate. I found some interesting ones in the paper yesterday and was wondering if anyone would care to comment.Electoral Turnout
Indonesia 96%
Australia 95%
South Africa 86%
Germany 82%
UK 72%
France 69%
Japan 60%
US 49%
(taken from most recent elections)
Literacy
Japan 99%
UK 99%
US 97%
Cuba 96%
(Source: CIA)
External debt, 1999
US $862 billion
Russia $164 billion
China $159 billion
Colombia $18 billion
Bangladesh $16.7 billion
Ireland $11 billion
(Source: CIA)
Percentage of population obese
US 30%
Cuba 26.9%
Brazil 25.1%
Ghana 17%
UK 16.5%
China 7.2%
India 3%
(Source: CIA)
Telephones per capita
US 0.67
France 0.6
UK 0.5
Japan 0.5
(Source: CIA)
Electricity consumption per capita
US 13477 kWh
Japan 7523 kWh
France 6966 kWh
UK 5525 kWh
Russia 5397 kWh
(Source: CIA)
Infant mortality, deaths per 100
Colombia 28
Cuba 7.8
US 6.6
UK 5.9
Japan 3.8
Sweden 3.6
(Source: CIA)
TVs per capita
US 0.79
Japan 0.79
Germany 0.62
UK 0.33
China 0.24
Cuba 0.22
(Source: CIA)
Looking at these stats puzzles me; the UK isn't much different from the US; we have higher literacy rates, lower obesity and infant mortality rates, lower numbers of TVs and telephones per person; but it's all in the same ballpark; so why is the US's per capita power consumption two and a half times that of the UK's?; it's not as if you're getting a much better life out of it, according to the stats.
Note: I'm not saying that the US is inferior, or bad, or anything; I'm just puzzled by this vast gulf in levels of energy consumption.
Farinata
