The US rankings... a sad story indeed (a work in progress)

Abortion Rates According to a study by the journal International Family Planning Perspectives, in 1999 (the year the study was published), the United States ranked twenty-fourth in terms of abortion rates. Vietnam ranked first.

Acceptance of Evolution According to a 2006 study first published in the magazine, Science, the United States ranks thirty-third out of thirty four nations (32 in Europe plus Japan and the United States) in acceptance of evolution. Iceland ranks first. Only Turkey ranked lower than the United States in the acceptance of evolution. A study I like to call "How ignorant are we"

Anxiety Disorders According to a presentation to the IFPE Congress in Vienna, Austria on April 18, 2009, on the results of World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Survey, 19% of Americans experience a clinical anxiety disorder in a given twelve-month period, which makes the United States rank first in that category.

Armed Forces Personnel According to the World Bank, in 2008 there were 1,540,000 military members in the United States, or 5.6% of the world’s 27,469,342 armed forces personnel. That was enough to make the United States rank third out of one hundred sixty seven countries with armed forces. China ranks first, with 2,885,000 military members, or 10.5% of the world’s total. Ten countries–China, India, the United States, Russia, North Korea, Pakistan, Egypt, Brazil, South Korea, and Turkey–account for almost one half (49.5%) of the world’s total armed forces personnel.




Assaults According to data gathered between 1998 and 2000 and published in the Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime, there are 805.21 assaults for every 100,000 Americans, a rate that makes the United States rank sixth in that category. Swaziland ranks first, with 1356.84 recorded assaults per 100,000 people.

Belief in the Separation of Church and State According to the Pew Global Attitude Project’s 2003 report, Views of a Changing World, 55% of Americans completely agree with the statement, “religion is a personal matter and should be kept separate from government.” The United States is tied for twenty-fifth (out of forty-one countries) with Russia and Uzbekistan in this category. Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) ranks first, with 84% of respondents believing in the separation of church and state. This hurts my heart.

Business Freedom According to the 2010 edition of the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Economic Freedom, the United States has a “business freedom” score of 91.3, which makes the United States rank thirteenth out of 179 ranked countries. New Zealand ranks first, with a score of 99.9.

Carbon Footprint According to the Global Footprint Network, the United States ranks third among all countries in terms of the size of its carbon footprint. The United Arab Emirates ranks first.