Jun 1, 2006

numbers to surprise and delight

One of the benefits of a subscription to The Economist is its annual "Pocket World in Figures," a nifty compendium of economic and demographic statistics the globe over.

For instance, though the United States is by far the global leader in consumption, it's not first in nitrogen emissions (9th) or sulfur dioxide emissions (16th), and isn't in the top twenty for threatened mammal species. Also, everyone who carps about SUVs and overcrowded highways had better look at this list:
Number of Cars Per 1000 People
1. Lebanon 732
2. New Zealand 613
3. Brunei 576
Luxembourg 576
5. Iceland 561
6. Canada 559
7. Italy 542
8. Germany 516
9. Switzerland 507
10. Malta 505
11. Austria 494
12. France 491
13. Australia 488
14. United States 481
Considering that about half of the U.S.'s cars currently are rusting in a yard in Oakville, Washington, and that the U.S. also ranks 14th in vehicles per kilometer of populated land and 17th in overall road use, perhaps we should direct our vehicular wrath elsewhere. Like at Lebanon.

3 comments:

MT said...

Yeah, but since we have one gun per every person, the guy without a car can always jack somebody who has one. It's our efficiency, and more even than our freedom I think that's what they hate us for.

char said...

it makes me wonder what the breakdown of guzzling SUVs versus diesel compacts is in each of these countries though

Jim Anderson said...

char, shh... don't think for yourself! Numbers never lie...

Seriously, though, it's a good question. If this information [pdf] is correct, 1/3 of vehicles in Europe are diesels (no word on the sizes thereof).

Diesels get great mileage but also pollute terribly, which might explain some of the disparity in rankings between emissions and vehicular use.