Here’s a site that’s jam-packed with information: Nation Master. It has graphs and stats galore relating to different nations (most represented on a per capita basis).
Some info gleaned…
- Most rapes? That honor goes to South Africa.
- Most murderous sovereign hellhole? Columbia.
- Most miserably poor? Liberia.
- Most corrupt? Iceland.
- Most shattered marriages? America!
- Best place to get your ass kicked? South Africa!
- Most fucked by debt? Zimbabwe.
- Most lazy goddamn couch potatoes? The United Kingdom.
- Biggest collection of tanks? Russia.
- Most stoners? New Zealand.
- Happiest? Where else but Hugo Chavez’s glistening utopia?
- Most incessantly talkative and irritating cell phone users? Taiwan.
- Most youth suicides? New Zealand.
- Most economically liberated? Hong Kong! (Is that truly a “country”?)
- Most murders by gunshot? Sweet, sweet South Africa once again.
The site also has an interesting feature called “the Full Wiki,” which identifies trends on Wikipedia. Right now, some movers and shakers in the Wiki universe include:
I then learned that…
- Norway is the most caffeinated little nook around;
- Russia is the most prolific killer of babies;
- Austria welcomes your dirty, stinky cigarettes with open arms;
- If you like circumcised women, then you’ll find paradise in Nigeria;
- Japan is teeming with political extremists;
- Bulgarians are pretty damn depressed;
- Australia has more jocks than any other place on Earth;
- A queer country, Japan is;
- The Irish are pretty goddamn proud of being Irish;
- There are cops everywhere in Denmark;
- The U.S. is the world-wide leader in Jehovah’s Witnesses;
- In the United Kingdom, property taxes are completely untenable;
- India has newspapers spilling from every orifice; and
- France churns out Nobel Prize-winning writers in prodigious fashion.
Fun stuff.
Well, South Africa produces some kick-ass wines, but other than that, I have no desire to go there, despite it’s amazing beaches. (I can find beaches elsewhere.)
Those opposing the legalization of marijuana will undoubtedly link New Zealand’s marijuana use to their suicide rate. Just more fodder!
So we’re in the land of Jehovah’s Divorcees. I suppose it could be worse…
It is curious that New Zealand has a plethora of stoners to go along with its high suicide rate. A statistical anomaly, no doubt.
Very interesting too the amount of economic growth in Arizona. Lends an interesting dynamic to the immigration debate.