Very refreshing to see an American looking outside the borders for a change. My American wife loves living here in Australia because of the laid-back lifestyle.

Nice chart – Would be interesting with the $ numbers on it as well.

Norway was the only one I saw that didnt fit in…

Kim:)

That’s a pretty interesting find. I think, though that the chart labels are wrong on your chart (it seems like it should be labeled: GDP (M) instead of Pop (M). That threw me off a little bit when I was looking around.

In any case, still fairly interesting to think about, especially because the U.S. is always a target for blame and contention.

There was a link I saw recently, perhaps one you even posted on your blog (it escapes me at the moment), that allows you to compare your wealth to the rest of the world.

It was eye opening if nothing else to see how little others made and how a $30,000 millionaire as they say around here, really could be a millionaire in another country somewhere..

I live in a country with the population equal to a small city in USA, aprox 4,5 million people live here. Most of the GDP is based on debt towards World Bank (80%) and yet I feel that I live better than many americans do :)

S.

Interesting chart!

It’s interesting that the GDP/population ration is most equivalent between first-world nations. eg – Canada vs Texas, pop within about 30% having roughly equal GDPs – says that these compared areas generate similar monetary values with a similar population base.

And then looking at 3rd world nations vs states, eg Pakistan(141.4) vs Arkansas (2.7) shows an immense discrepancy of efficiency. but perhaps it’s not efficiency, but relative monetary values – 1 Pakistan rupee = 0.016495 U.S. dollars (60 rupees = 1 USD). If you compare this to the populations: 141.4 / 2.7 = 52.3, I can see that perhaps it’s the monetary difference that’s so extreme.

I suppose to have validity, we’d have to compare living costs in pakistan with Arkansas – ie – if someone from Arkansas can purchase a loaf of bread for 1 dollar, can someone from Pakistan purchase the equivalent for 1 rupee? And if the average cost to rent a house in Arkansas is $500 /pcm, is a similar domicle in Pakistan 500 rupee per month? And if the avg Arkansas wage is $20,000, is the avg Pakistan wage 20,000 rupees?

I haven’t gone to all the effort to compare each of these examples, but I have done some world travelling and have noticed that people all over the world sometimes seem to live relatively using similar currency levels. eg, I currently live in the UK, and notice that compared to America, the prices of most items are similar – if you don’t take the exchange rate into consideration (and of course regional taxation rates will wildly skew certain items like gasoline) – eg A loaf of bread in the US can be purchased for a dollar, whilst in the UK a similar loaf wil be 1 GBP, renting a house will be about $1000, while in the UK it’s about 1000 GBP. A job that pays $30,000 in the US will probably be pay about 30,000 GBP, etc

And of course, since the data was about 3 years out of date, the Canadian comparison will be slightly different – 3 years ago the exchange rate was about 0.70 CDN per 1 USD, and now the currencies are roughly equivalent.

Anyhow it’s my pet theory, and thanks for all the fish. ;)

Lance