I came across this "measure" in a recent Time magazine ("Are America's Best Days Behind Us" March 14, 2011) and thought this would be perfect for you guys. This website is very interactive. Click on the map in the top right to access how the countries of the world are measured based on their "prosperity". Just below that you can access comparisons of 2 or more countries in a wide variety of measures. Feel free to play around with this site and then post. Your comments should include what you discovered, the region/country(s) of the world you were investigating and a short reflection on what you learned.
Have some fun learning about US + the rest of the world we inhabit.
Mr. Thompson
I felt kind of down to see my country, Belarus, being so low on the list, because it is ranked fairly high in education and most of the other factors. However I saw the trend that it is probably due to the Eastern European countries in general are still recovering from the communist regime of the Soviet Union (which effects can probably shown in their similar economics too). I was also surprised to see small countries like New Zealand and Denmark so high up on the list, and Singapore and Hong Kong ranking well especially in educaiton, along with other East Asian countries which usually do rank well. Lastly, it felt a bit off that the U.S. was ranked #1 for health...while the technologies are probably good, I think that since so many people struggle to pay for it and how expensive hospital bills are, and it is not given to us free like in some Scandanavian countries, we should not rank so well in that area.
ReplyDelete-Vera Novitskaia
Hour 3 US Government
I was looking at the countries in Central America and I was surprised to see that the general population of many of the countries have some of the highest Life Satisfaction averages in the world. It also appears that these countries have low unemployment rates as well, but when I read more, I learned that most of the unemployed population has dropped out of the workforce which brings down the unemployment rate. The other thing that I thought was strange was that those countries have very low percentages of finding other people trustworthy. For example, Guatemala has a 16.4% "trustworthy" rate.
ReplyDeleteJeanne Depman
I was looking at countries in Europe and i was supprised to see that alot of them have high life satisfaction, literacy rate, and life expectency. Sweden looked like a very good coutry if i wanted to live somewhere new. Sweden is ranked 2nd in entrepreneurship & opprotunity which means that the overall level of innovation in Sweden is very high. This also means that bussiness start up costs are also very low which must attract entrepreneurship which would help the overall economy of Sweden.
ReplyDeleteBryan King
Looking at what countries in the world might possibly be the most "prosperous," i came across Norway. Norway is said to be the most prosperous in terms of social capital, economy, education, etc. However, i'm not sure how accurate a survey like this could be when the population of Norway is 4.9 million, compared to the U.S.'s population of 310.3 million. On top of that, the U.S.'s statistics are more up to date. Ha. Also, I found it interesting that Norway, a somewhat small country that is very rarely brought up in the news, is the most desirable country to live in. I also find it EXTREMELY hard to believe that any country in the world would have a 100% literacy rate. If the U.S. had a !00% literacy rate, then why would the school districts in rochester be paying to fight illiteracy? but that's besides the point. Norway is a wonderful country in almost all areas that it is possible to be compared to (lacking only a small amount in government).
ReplyDeleteI decided to take a little peek into Italy due to the fact that if I could live anywhere on earth I would live somewhere in the ancient beauty that is Italy. However I was surprised to see what they were ranking in everything. They were ranked 29th in economy. They describe it as a moderate economy but then as you read further into the passage it says the population of Italy is very pessimistic about their economy getting any better. However I was happy to see things like 99% literacy rate and a life expectancy of 82 years. I am also glad to hear that the Italians feel that their nation is a safe place to live and that they have moderate freedom to a point.
ReplyDelete~~~ Brie Baker
I looked at the Northern part of European countries and did a compare/contrast of Norway, Finland, and Sweden since they were right next to eachother. Looking at their ranking in all European countries Norway was #1, Finland #3, and Sweden #6. Norway caught my eye and I looked at it's Economy and Gov't. Out of those three countries I would probably live in Norway b/c of its secure economy and pretty good Entrepreneurship. Finland has a better education but all together Norway seemed to have the safest and most stable economy and country.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Hertel
Hour 5
Looking through the website I compared countries in South East Asia, e.g. Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and others. I noticed that all the countries had a life expectancy of late 60's to mid 70's, compared to other countries this is low. Many other places had an average life span of low 80's. The countries also had a poor average life satisfaction number, most not reaching over 6%.
ReplyDelete-Risa Ricard
I thought it was interesting that the United States, Canada, and Western Europe all were very high on most of the lists. Also that most of Africa, Central America, and Asia were low on most lists. China is low on almost every list except the economy. It is sad to think that Mexico and Central America are so low in parts of the lists while the United States and Canada are high on the lists. It would be nice if we could help them out but parts of those countries are so bad I wouldn't know where to start.
ReplyDeleteSophie Hackman
Hour 3
I checked out my country of Kenya and the rankings were bad. A life expectancy of 54 and low trustworthy rate - 9.6%, but the literacy rate is 87%. You can never know how accurate these results are, but they nailed some of the information down right. Crime and corruption is high, you really cant trust anyone but your family, and 87% of the people can read and write and many speak more than one language.
ReplyDeleteAslo i checked some other countries and i found it really funny that 88.8% of Americans believe that the society is meritocratic, yet Bush was elected president.
Duncan Gichimu
Being Danish, I looked at Denmark and their scores. I wasn't surprised to find that they were number two over all. I did find it interesting, however that the Danes were listed as actually having a 100% literacy level. That is one area that I believe the U.S. and Minnesota or Rochester on a local scale need to make a priority.
ReplyDeleteKaryn Olsen
7th hour
I was kind of unaware of Norway being number 1. Looking into detail, I learned that their literacy rate is at 100% and their Social Capital is ranked first. They also have high levels of trust and social engagement. I also took an interested in the country I was born in, Saudi Arabia. It’s number forty-nine on the list. It was shocking to see that access to education is deprived overall. They rank relatively low when it comes to individual freedom and tolerance. They have strong community and family networks. About 85% of the people that live in Saudi Arabia are satisfied with their personal health.
ReplyDeleteAmal Jeylani
Hour 5
Looking through this website I compared Germany and Denmark since that's where my ancestors are from. I was surprised to see that Germany was ranked at a 6 in the health system. Something that I was shocked by at looking at Denmark was that their entrepreneurship was ranked at a one! These two countries do not really have anything in common for rankings. Denmark is higher then Germany is ,but I was surprised to see that Denmark was ranked at 2nd over all and had a poor ranking number for their health system unlike Germany did. Even though Denmark has a poorer health system then Germany both countries life expectancy was around the 70's.
ReplyDeleteNicole Fabian
Hr. 3
I decided to compare Ireland to sweden because that's where each side of my family is from. Their overall rankings were fairly close with Sweden at 6 and Ireland at 11. One thing that was surprisingly different was that Ireland's economy rank was all the way down at 22 leaving Sweden at the top 10 of economy with a ranking of 7. So even though their overall rankings were close, there were some noticeable differences.
ReplyDeletePat Windish
Hr. 3