The U.S. ranks 17th in educational performance

According to the report, The Learning Curve, developed by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the United States ranks seventeenth out of forty countries ranked in overall educational performance. Finland ranks first. The top ten countries in educational performance are:

1. Finland
2. South Korea
3. Hong Kong SAR
4. Japan
5. Singapore
6. United Kingdom
7. Netherlands
8. New Zealand
9. Switzerland
10. Canada.

The U.S. ranks 1st in death by violence

According to the National Academy of Sciences, in 2008 the United States had a death-by-violence rate of 6.47 per 100,000 people. That is enough to make the United States rank first out of seventeen “high-income democracies” ranked in that category. The second-ranked country was Finland, with a death-by-violence rate of 2.24 per 100,000.

Graph from the National Academy of Sciences
http://sites.nationalacademies.org/DBASSE/CPOP/DBASSE_080393#violence

The U.S. ranks 89th in depth of global connectedness

According to DHL, the United States has a “depth of global connectedness” score of 18.18 (out of a possible score of 50), which makes the United States rank eighty-ninth out of one hundred forty countries ranked in that category. Hong Kong ranks first, with a score of 50.

A Bad Week for the First Amendment

This is an essay I wrote for the Huffington Post in response to some recent assaults on the freedom of expression in the U.S.

The U.S. ranks 47th in press freedom

According to Reporters Without Borders, the United States ranks forty-seventh out of one hundred seventy-nine countries ranked for freedom of the press. The top ten countries for press freedom are:

1. Finland
2. Norway
3. Estonia
4. Netherlands
5. Austria
6. Iceland
7. Luxembourg
8. Switzerland
9. Cape Verde
10. Canada and Denmark (tied)