Roaming South America

The USA is number 1 in what?

July 28, 2019

People all over the world often think of the USA as the number 1 country in the world. People in the US think their country is the number one country in the world. While it is true the US is the number one economy in the world, in other categories the statistics tell another story.

I researched many categories of statistics for many countries, from various sources that rank countries, and present what I found below. From these various sources of information we learn that the USA is not numero uno in any categories that a US citizen can take pride in.

Look at the politics of the US - a mess beyond imagination, for citizens and non-citizens alike. Look at the polarized society that is moving backwards, that is, towards more segregation, more separation of people into groups. Whatever happened to bringing the people together that Martin Luther King, Jr. espoused? That is a long forgotten dream in today's United States.

Being an expat, and speaking with lots of people about many subjects, one subject that always comes up is life in the States. These people have such big ideas of how great it would be to live there. I ask them, "Why? What do you think is so much better there than what you have here?" And their responses are always based on what they have seen on TV and in the movies. The people I have talked to here in Colombia who have visited the States, and the ones who have lived there but are back in their home country again, all say they much prefer life here in Colombia. They know from personal experience that what the US has to offer is not necessarily better than what they have right here in their own country.

So, herein are a few of the categories that show how the US compares to the rest of the world. I present these in no particular order.

Number of expatriates

An expat is a person who has left their home country to live/work (for an extended period of time or permanently) in a foreign country. It appears every source of info about expats has wildly different statistics, so who's to know the truth of these numbers? And, some contradict themselves within the same webpage.

One source, ParagonRelocation, says that Saudi Arabia and India have the most people expatriating, but also says the USA and UAE follow Saudi Arabia.

The best guestimates of the number of US citizens who are considered expats runs about 5.2 million, or 6.3 million, and according to Wikipedia there are 9 million US expats, and many other estimates. According to the website justlanded.com the US ranks 6^th in the number of expats, after Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, USA. The problem is there is no database of expats, there is no registration of expats, there are no definitive numbers, only guestimates.

Regardless, the US is very high up on the list of countries with people leaving, if not at the top of the list.

Quality of Life

What does the phrase "quality of life" mean? From USNews.com: The "ideas of broad access to food and housing, to quality education and health care, to employment that will sustain us, quality of life may also include intangibles such as job security, political stability, individual freedom and environmental quality". The number 1 ranked country in the world for the first half of 2019 was Canada. Where did the US come in on the list? ranks 17^th.

Health Care

In the States we often see news articles and stories telling about somebody going to some other country to get some surgery done and how little it cost including airfare/hotel/food etc. We also see all kinds of reports that talk about the high cost of health care. But, how does it compare to the rest of the world? According to numbeo.com the US ranks ranks 30^th in the world (according to their own surveys). According to internationalinsurance.com the US ranks ranks 11^th in the world (they say their info comes from the Commonwealth Fund). The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation did a ranking and they show the US at #29. And, the World Health Organization put the US at #37 in 2018. Yet the US spends far more money per capita on health care than any other country. Here are a few statistics I found on the WHO website, these are for 2018 - According to the WHO in 2018 the US spent more than twice as much, per capita, than the #1 ranked country - France. The OECD data shows the US has the ranks 11^th highest infant mortality rate; tied for the ranks 9^th highest suicide rate; ranks 28^th for life expectancy from birth (78.6 years); deaths from cancer the US ranks ranks 13^th. Another source, premieroffshore.com, says the US ranks ranks 49^th in life expectancy and ranks 178^th in infant mortality, apparently those numbers came from a study published in the academic journal Health Affairs.

But, are you ready for this? The USA is number 1 in - health care spending. Not exactly something to take pride in.

Education

Isn't the US number 1 in education? No, unfortunately it's not. We're far from the top slot. In fact, according to the 2015 PISA ratings (The Program for International Student Assessment, it tests 15-year-olds) the USA ranks ranks 23^rd in the category of Reading, ranks 39^th in Math, and ranks 25^th in Science. The TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Assessment tests ranks 4^th and ranks 8^th grade students). On the TIMSS 2015 test we see the US ranked at ranks 13^th for math and ranks 9^th for science for ranks 4^{th grade students; ranks 9th for math and ranks 10th for science for ranks 8th grade students.}

Business

What about doing business in the USA? We have lots of data from the World Bank to look at and compare.

Let's look at "Economy ratings". The World Bank description for this category is: "A high ease of doing business ranking means the regulatory environment is more conducive to the starting and operation of a local firm. The rankings are determined by sorting the aggregate scores on 10 topics, each consisting of several indicators, giving equal weight to each topic. The rankings for all economies are benchmarked to May 2018."

• What is the USA's rank overall for ease of doing business? ranks 8^th.
• What is the USA's rank overall for starting a business? ranks 53^rd.
• What is the USA's rank overall for Dealing with Construction Permits? ranks 26^th.
• What is the USA's rank overall for getting electricity? ranks 54^th.
• What is the USA's rank overall for registering property? ranks 38^th.
• What is the USA's rank overall for getting credit? ranks 3^rd.
• What is the USA's rank overall for protecting minority investors? ranks 50^th.

Freedom of the Press

I looked at the Reporters Without Borders website to get this number - the USA ranks, ready for this?, 48^th! Terrible! And, that has dropped since the previous rankings. Hmm, I wonder why? I think that's pretty obvious.

Economic Freedom

Surely we can do better in this area, right? Let's see what do we can find on the Heritage Foundation website, USA rank: 12^th freest economy in the world. Not #1, again. In the Americas the USA ranks 2^nd to Canada, and has Chile nipping at our heels.

Happiest Country

Shall we see if we're the happiest country in the world? What do you think? The smart people at the Happiness Research Institute publish what is probably the most authoritative of the many happiness reports available, and according to their rankings the US is not number one, as I feared, we fell another position since last year. The US is now ranked, in the new 2019 rankings, at 19^th.

Freedom from Corruption

Surely we rank high in this category, yes? According to Transparency.org the USA ranks 22^nd in "corruption perception". This is how they describe "corruption perception": "The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. More than two-thirds of countries score below 50 on this year's CPI, with an average score of just 43.

"It reveals that the continued failure of most countries to significantly control corruption is contributing to a crisis in democracy around the world. While there are exceptions, the data shows that despite some progress, most countries are failing to make serious inroads against corruption."

Children Vaccination

Ok, not looking too good, yet, so howabout children vaccination rate? According to the OECD web site (the latest data is from 2018) the US is not number one, China is. Where is the USA? At 28^th. Interestingly, such countries as Russia, Poland, Chile, Latvia, Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Korea, Portugal and others rate higher than the US.

Length of Hospital Stay

According to the OECD site this means "The average length of stay in hospitals (ALOS) is often used as an indicator of efficiency. All other things being equal, a shorter stay will reduce the cost per discharge and shift care from inpatient to less expensive post-acute settings." And again, the US is not even in the top 5, but it's not too far down the list, coming in at 9^th, so we do make it into the top 10. Who is number one, you ask? Turkey, with an average length of hospital stay of 4.1 days. The US average length of hospital stay is 5.5 days. (The OECD webpage says the data is 2018 or newer.)

Agriculture

Things are looking a little better in this category. In regards to "Permanent agricultural land" which is defined by the OECD as "Agricultural land is defined as the land area that is either arable, under permanent crops, or under permanent pastures" the USA is ranked 3^rd, after Russia and Australia.

In Fisheries the US ranks 3^rd as well, behind Russia and Indonesia.

Household Disposable Income

The OECD defines this as "Household disposable income measures the income of households (wages and salaries, self-employed income, income from unincorporated enterprises, social benefits, etc.), after taking into account net interest and dividends received and the payment of taxes and social contributions. Net signifies that depreciation costs have been subtracted from the income presented. "Real" means that the indicator has been adjusted to remove the effects of price changes. Household gross adjusted disposable income is the income adjusted for transfers in kind received by." So, where does the US rank in this? 13^th.

40^th. Yes, the US ranks 40^th in Labor compensation per hour worked.

3^rd in Net National Income.

Moving on to Education Spending. The US does spend a lot of money on education, and in the OECD rankings the US is ranked as 2^nd highest spending country, after Luxembourg.

But, what about crude oil production? No. Infrastructure investment? No. Passenger transport? No. Road accidents? Thankfully, no, we're number 2. Air pollution? Again, thankfully, no, we're number 9. Government reserves? No. Life expectancy at birth? No. Overweight and obese people? No, thankfully, though we are number 3. Household access to the internet? We're 27^th. Which is terrible considering that the internet was invented here in the USA by our DARPA.

What about CT Scanners? Surely, with the greatest health care system we should have the most CT Scanners, right? Wrong, we're number 4, after Greece, Latvia, and Germany. Thankfully we're 37^th in daily smokers. But, we're 29^th in deaths from cancer (all types of cancers included in this number). Number of doctors? Number of doctor visits? I didn't count, we're way down the list in both categories.

Okay, next let's look at the number of people who fall below the poverty line - the US ranks 4^th. At least we're not first, and that's a good thing. Who are the top three? South Africa, Costa Rica, and Israel. For kids under 17 living at the poverty level and below we are ranked 7^th; and for people 66 and older: 8^th. Regardless of how you think of those numbers, for the country with the biggest economy in the world, the country that is supposed to be numero uno in the world, those numbers are not good.

Hey! I found one we are number one in! It's Permanent immigrant inflows described as "regulated movements of foreigners considered to be settling in the country from the perspective of the destination country. They cover regulated movements of foreigners as well as free movement migration." That means the USA is the most popular country to emmigrate to. The USA is #1. This is just the 2^nd category I've come across in the data that we are number 1.

In regards to gun ownership, there are only 3 countries in the world that permit gun ownership by citizens in their constitutions, as a right - The United States, Mexico, and Guatamala. But there is a big difference between the US and the other two - the constitutions of Mexico and Guatamala include specific and restrictive conditions on gun ownership. As of 2018 the US ranks number 1 in the world in gun ownership, not something you should take pride in. There were 101 guns per 100 people in the USA. The second place country is Serbia with 58 guns per 100 people. This gun ownership info comes from worldatlas.com.

So, now we have seen 3 areas the USA is number 1 - health care spending, Permanent immigrant inflows, and gun ownership.

Now I will tell you a fourth area the US is #1 - the number of citizens incarcerated. Wonderful, that's something to be proud of. NOT! That number comes from the website statista.com. The U.S. prison population accounts for more than one-fifth of the global total despite the country's general population share being less than five percent.

Okay, that's enough, that's 47 areas of statistics. The USA ranks #1 in the world in 4 of those areas, and they are not anything to take pride in.

PS
While in a lesson with a student our conversation turned to the opioid crisis and so we went to the OECD web site to look at the stats. What did we find? Not surprisingly, the USA is number 1 in the world in the category "Mean availability of analgesic opioids", and number 1 by a long ways above the number 2 country - Germany. But, what are analgesic opioids? "Analgesic opioids include codeine, dextropropoxyphene, dihydrocodeine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, morphine, ketobemidone, oxycodone, pethidine, tilidine and trimeperidine. It does NOT include illicit opioids." On the OECD that talks about opioids they do say "Capturing the size of the illicit opioids market is very difficult." But, they do have stats for seizures of illicit opioids, and where does the US stand on that? Number 6^th. Continuing down the page we find "Opioid-related deaths" and where does the US rank? Want to guess? Did you guess number 1? If so, you're right - opioid-related deaths. And number 2 is Canada. The problem with statistics in regards to illegal drugs is there are no reliable stats, therefore finding any real rankings for countries and usage of illegal drugs is difficult, if not at all possible. Regardless, all the numbers about drugs usage show the US in the the top 5 countries for any and all types of drugs, legal and illegal.

So, there you have it - about 50 categories of rankings and the USA is number 1 in six of them -

• the number of citizens incarcerated
• number of guns
• health care spending
• permanent immigrant inflow
• availability of opioids
• opioid-related deaths

It's hard to take pride in my own country after writing this blog.