subject: Are The World's Countries Worlds Apart? [print this page] The population of the world was expected to reach 7 billion on October 31, 2011. However, more than 33% of the population is in 2 countries: China (1,336,718,015) and India (1,189,172,906). The U.S. population is a distant third (313,232,044) followed by Indonesia (245,613,043) and Brazil (203,429,773). Only 12 countries have populations over 100 million. The Pitcairn Islands, a British territory in the south Pacific, has the smallest population - 48 people. As of 2010 all the islands' inhabitants were from 4 families - Christian, Warren, Young and Brown - all descendants of the Bounty mutineers and the Tahitians who accompanied them. Yes, it's a "small world".
The countries with the lowest unemployment rates are Qatar and Thailand, both with 0.5% unemployment as of 2010. Singapore is third (1.9%) followed by Vietnam (2.6%) and Switzerland (2.8%). Many of the countries with low unemployment rates are located in Southeast Asia. They receive a lot of investment that used to go to China. Even China outsources to those countries. The U.S. with 9.2% unemployment is close to the bottom on the list of 67 counties, but some countries don't release unemployment rates. Zimbabwe is predicted to have 95% unemployment, but Zimbabwe is the world's most undeveloped country. We'll see what develops....
France is the country that is best at preventing preventable deaths. France had 55 preventable deaths per 100,000 people. The journal Health Policy ranked 16 wealthy countries by looking at 2006-2007 data for 4 common killers: heart disease, diabetes, stroke and bacterial infections. Australia was ranked second with 57 per 100,000 people followed by Italy/60, both Japan and Sweden/61, Norway/64, Netherlands/66, Austria/67, Finland/74, Germany/76, Greece/77, Ireland/78, New Zealand/79, Denmark/80 and the United Kingdom/83. The United States was ranked last with 96 preventable deaths per 100,000 people. The U.S. reputation for the world's best health care received a preventable "death blow".
When it comes to retirement, the U.S. ranked 10th. That's according to the 2011 Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index. Not surprisingly, more progressive countries ranked 1st-6th: Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Canada and the U.K. However, Chile, Poland and Brazil ranked 7th, 8th and 9th. Their better rankings were attributed to things such as less national debt, not allowing pension plans to be stuffed with company stock, mandatory contributions to accounts similar to 401(k)'s and older workers being able to draw on social security while still working - which adds more class to the working class.
