Global alcohol consumption

An article in The Economist reports that the world’s inhabitants drank the equivalent of 6.1 liters (1.6 gallons) of pure alcohol per person in 2005, according to a report from the World Health Organization. The biggest boozers are mostly found in Europe and in the former Soviet states. Moldovans are the most bibulous, getting through 18.2 liters (4.8 gallons) each, nearly 2 liters (1/2 gallon) more than the Czechs in second place. Over 10 liters (2.6 gallons) of a Moldovan's annual intake is reckoned to be 'unrecorded' home-brewed liquor, making it particularly harmful to health. Drinking such moonshine accounts for almost 30% of the world's total alcohol consumption. The WHO estimates that alcohol results in 2.5 million deaths a year, more than AIDS or tuberculosis. In Russia and its former satellite states one in five male deaths is caused by drink.

World's Most Expensive Cities

With Tokyo topping the list once again, the Economist Intelligence Unit released this chart analyzing the cost-of living index.  Beating out Zurich which achieved the number one spot last year due to its currency strength, Tokyo occupies the same place this year it has had fourteen times in the last twenty years.

New York forms the basis for comparison and is anchored at one hundred for reference, though up nineteen places from last year, reaching spot 27.  The scale is determine on the weighted average of 160 goods and services in each city.

In the past decade, cities that have seen strongest growth are Caracas and São Paulo (however, Caracas is seen to decrease to the level of Mumbai and Karachi when corrected for high inflation).  The past ten years have spelled out the most decline for Detroit and Panama City.

40 Years of Roe v Wade

Wednesday marks the 40^th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Roe v Wade regarding the legality of abortions.  The Economist’s Daily Chart notes this anniversary by highlighting the trends in abortions and abortion-related deaths in the United States since 1965.  The graph to the right illustrates an oft-overlooked statistic: although Roe v Wade is the national milestone for abortion rights, abortion laws had already been liberalized in fifteen states three years earlier.  In fact, abortion-related deaths saw an extreme decline between 1970 and the 1973 Supreme Court ruling, from roughly 140 deaths in 1970 to approximately 40 in 1973.  In a similar trend, abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 began to steeply increase in 1969 and continued at a similar increase throughout the 1970s.

Since 1980, abortions have been on a steady decline, from almost 240 per 1,000 women to less than 20 in 2008. The Economist also points out that many states have been attempting to curb abortion rates in their states, introducing 135 provisions and regulations in the past two years.  In addition, sixteen states retain laws which would ban abortions if Roe v Wade were ever overturned.

The Economist's article primarily used data from the US Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract, found here.

Can Obama's second term outperform his first?

On President Obama’s inauguration day for his second term, the Economist explores the economic performance of two-term presidents since the start of the 20^th century.  A range of sources measured performance according to industrial production, federal debt, GDP, stock market, household income, unemployment rate, and real house prices.  The overall score of each president’s second term decreases by an average of 4.2 percentage points from their first term score.

Don’t write off Obama’s second term yet, though.  Franklin Roosevelt’s highly successful New Deal policies in his first term led to a substantially lower relative second term, and three of the eleven two-term presidents (including most recent Democratic president Bill Clinton) had higher economic performances in their second terms.

A Bleak Climate Change Forecast

The Economist recently published an article covering climate change policy to mark the beginning of the Doha Climate Change Conference. According to current projections, the outlook appears quite bleak. Although the world needed to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, they have actually increased by 20% just in the past 10 years. This is a major cause for concern, since the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that by 2020, greenhouse gas emissions must be 11% lower than they are now to guarantee that temperatures do not increase by 2 degrees Celsius. Assuming that greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at this same pace, by 2020 the world will emit  58 gigatonnes of carbon equivalent (GtCO₂e), significantly more than the maximum level of 44 GtCO₂e required to prevent temperatures from rising above 2 degrees Celsius. As the Economist explains, if countries planned on making major cuts down the line, then we could potentially avoid this catastrophic temperature increase. However, given the political climate and current policies laid out, this appears unlikely. Even if countries adopted the strictest, conditional pledges, countries wouldn’t even come close to the GtCO₂e goal needed to prevent temperatures from rising above 2 degrees Celsius.

Presidential Race Polling Very Close

With the election looming just two weeks away, and the final debate between President Barack Obama and his challenger Mitt Romney in the books, the focus turns to polls.  The race has tightened in recent weeks, especially in the key battleground states of Ohio, Colorado, Iowa, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and New Hampshire. The President carried all these states in his win over Senator John McCain in the 2008 election, though polls indicate the 2012 election will be much closer, particularly in the previously mentioned battleground states.  While the President maintained an early advantage in Ohio, Iowa, and Colorado, recent polls in these states place the two candidates in a near deadlocked battle.  Mitt Romney has retained a slight lead in Florida, arguably the most important battleground state, over the past month.

The Economist has compiled an election season map, with polling details for each state.  Based on the most recent polling results President Obama possesses 253 likely Electoral College votes (17 shy of the 270 necessary for victory) to Mitt Romney's 191. However, there are still 94 votes from battleground states that are up in the air.  Should Mitt Romney hold onto his lead in Florida, he would receive 29 votes - the third most for any state.  This would leave him 50 votes shy of victory with 65 votes still on the table.  While Florida represents the most votes for any battleground state, Ohio may yet be the most important.  If the President takes Ohio along with the other 253 likely Obama votes, he surpasses the 270 vote mark with a single vote to spare.  A recent Quinnipiac Poll gives the President a five-point lead in Ohio, and he's led the state in most polls throughout the past two months.  

Religious Belief and Crime

In a study covering 67 countries conducted by Azim Shariff at the University of Oregon and Mike Rhemtulla at the University of Kansas, the authors compared crime rates to the proportion of citizens who believed in heaven versus hell.  Citizens of the various countries were asked if they believed in either heaven or hell, and the researchers subtracted the percentage of heaven-believers by the percentage of hell-believers; the following remainder represented the country’s “rate of belief.”  Shariff and Rhemtulla found that a higher rate of belief predicted higher crime rates.  Researchers suggested that the comfort of heaven without the possibility of eternal punishment in hell compels one to commit further wrongdoings.  In Monday’s daily chart, The Economist compiled the data into a graph to display the connection between the two variables.  Countries with low crime rates and low rates of belief more often than not fell in the Middle Eastern and Asian regions, while countries in South America tended to possess higher crime rates and rates of belief.

Most Efficient Country at the Olympics?

With the Games of the XXX Olympiad underway, this week’s edition of The Economist’s daily chart features an analysis of the Olympics’ most successful countries.  The magazine established its rankings based on the number of competitors per medal won.  The most successful country – though it is now nonexistent – was East Germany.  The communist nation undertook effective but controversial training methods; however, the country’s practices yielded a highly competitive team, and its 3.3 medals per competitor topped the rankings.  The Soviet Union placed second, with 3.4 medals per competitor.  The U.S., though easily boasting the highest medal count of 2,292 total medals, ranked third with 4.1 medals per competitor.  

Fighting AIDS Worldwide

On July 19^th, The Economist highlighted a report from UNAIDS, a United Nations Agency with the goal of fighting AIDS.  AIDS-related deaths surged upwards from 1990 to its peak in 2005 of 2.3 million per year, but since then, the number of those who have lost their lives to the virus have dropped off.  The decrease in deaths can be partially attributed to the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PREFAR), which President Bush initiated in 2003 and President Obama renewed in 2008.  Since then, the number of people receiving antiretroviral medication has dramatically increased; the figure stands at over 8 million in poorer regions of the world.  Today, while AIDS remains a serious crisis, the number of AIDS-related deaths has fallen to 1.7 million, a level unseen since 2000.

U.S. Naturalization

The Economist's recent Daily Chart depicts the number of naturalizations that occurred over the past decade in a handful of countries.  The graph also displays the proportion of each country's population that is foreign born.


The nations that naturalized the most citizens were the United States, Russia, and Canada. With a figure of 6.6 million, the United States naturalized the most citizens from 2001-2010. Russia comes in second, with about half as many naturalizations at 3.1 million people, while Canada follows with just under 2 million naturalized citizens in just as many years. Other countries with more than a million naturalized immigrants are Britain, France, and Germany.

However, the countries that naturalized the most immigrants are not necessarily the ones whose populations have the greatest proportion of foreign born people.  For example, while the United States conferred citizenship on 6.6 million individuals in the past decade, immigrants only account for 13% of its total population.  On the other hand, Australia and Switzerland naturalized 1 million and about 0.4 million people, but both their foreign born populations constitute 27% of the total population, the most of any countries depicted in the graphic.  Countries with other high proportions of foreign born people are New Zealand (23%), Canada (20%), Spain (15%), and Sweden (15%).

Child Mortality Rate Plunging Throughout Africa

The Economist’s daily chart from May 19^th highlighted child mortality rates among 20 nations in Africa.  According to Gabriel Demombynes and Karina Trommlerova of the World Bank, since 2005, 16 of 20 African countries on which detailed living condition surveys have been conducted experienced a drop in child-mortality rates.  Of the 20 nations, only Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Nambia, and Liberia endured an increase in the child-mortality rate.  12 nations had a decrease of at least 4.4% a year, and Senegal and Rwanda boasted a drop of nearly 10% a year.  In fact, the plunge in child mortality is actually speeding up.  Throughout most African nations, the rate is decreasing twice as fast compared to the early 2000s and 1990s.  

Data in Review: Undergraduate Catches Error in Beer Consumption Figure

An editorial written by Australian undergraduate Luke Mansillo to the Economist aptly drew attention to somewhat misleading figures regarding Australia’s beer consumption used in an Economist article published May 5^th.  According to the May 5^th article, beer consumption in Australia has plummeted to just 4.5 litres (7.5 pints) per person annually, a 65-year low.  Howeve, in his editorial, Mansillo points out that, while Australian beer consumption is in fact at a 65-year low, the figure used in the article was litres of pure alcohol content.  According to Mansillo, the figure in terms of volume is much higher at 98 litres (172 pints) per person annually.  The Economist has subsequently clarified this in a correction in which both figures are included.   

Low Population Mobility in European Union

A recent Economist article discusses the low cross-border population mobility within the European Union despite large variations in the unemployment rate across European nations.  This variation in unemployment rate can be seen in the first chart from the article, which shows Spain at approximately 23% unemployment as of March 2012 and Austria at less than 5%.  However, as the second graph from the article shows, few Europeans migrate within their countries and even fewer across countries in the European Union relative to the US, Canada and Australia.  The article suggests that this low mobility could be a result of language barriers, higher transaction fees and taxes for home-buyers and disincentives to move from large unemployment benefits, among other things.