The least unreliable international rankings will here be linked-to for the various nations, on: per-person income, economic growth-rate, economic equality, happiness (perceived well-being), percentage in prison, murder rate, life-expectancy, perceived democracy of government, trust in the government, and governmental corruptness.

The complete rankings will be shown only for happiness, because that might be what most people care about the most; and also for life-expectancy, because that also might be what most people care about the most; and both of those two also because a happy life and a long life are probably the two main objectives of most people.

by Eric Zuesse

The special focus here will be on America, because the chief claim by the world’s most powerful Government, the U.S. Government, is that it is the best country in the world, and especially that it is the most democratic country in the world and constitutes the model democracy, and that the Governments that it is constantly trying to overthrow or conquer are the opposite: ‘authoritarian’ and a ‘dictatorship’. For example, recently, on June 20th, U.S. President Joe Biden called China’s President Xi Jinping, a “dictator,” which is the U.S. Government’s main accusation against a foreign head-of-state that it is trying to overthrow or “regime-change”; it is the main ‘justification’ for the U.S. Government’s invasions, sanctions, and other aggressions, which have killed tens of millions of people. In fact, U.S. President Barack Obama had said that only the U.S. is an “indispensable” country — all others are “dispensable” — and he also said three times in the same speech that Governments he was trying to overthrow were ruled by a “dictator” and so need to be set free by “the one indispensable nation”.

Furthermore, the U.S. Government’s allies, which include all European nations (except Europe’s largest, Russia), and also include Japan and South Korea, as well as a few others, accept being “dispensable,” and join the U.S. Government’s invasions, sanctions, etc., because America is a “democracy” in their view. Or at least they say it is. Information that indicates the extent to which it actually is or not, will be included here, and this is one reason why the ranking of the world’s most powerful Government, the American Government, is a particular focus in the following rankings (and readers may click onto the title of each ranking here, in order to see the full rankings and explanations):

——

Per-Capita Income: Purchasing-Power-Parity (PPP). This is a very rough measure of average per-person income, not of wealth (which is more difficult to measure), and not of the average person’s quality-of-life (which depends far more on how evenly the wealth is distributed — and if that’s very unevenly distributed, this measure will tell you nothing about the average person’s economic situation). The top ten of the 182 rated countries on PPP PCI are (1) Luxembourg 115,683, (2) Singapore 106,032, (3) Ireland 102,496, (4) Qatar 92,862, (5) Bermuda 80,271, (6) Switzerland 71,032, (7) UA Emirates 69,733, (8) Norway 65,662, (9) Macao 64,797, (10) USA 63,669. U.S. rates #10 of 182 nations on that, and, to this extent, has the highest living standard of any large country. It’s a major U.S. achievement. Russia is (54) 27,960. China is 17,602. (73)  Brazil is (83) 14,592. India is (123) 6,592.

Between 1974 and 2021, U.S. per-capita GDP rose tenfold. However, that’s virtually the same rate of increase over those 47 years as the entire world experienced. So, it wasn’t extraordinary performance — it was normal performance. It was normal performance for the world, but it was extraordinary performance for the world’s leading economy. When a country becomes the world-leader and matches the global rate of growth then for 47 years, that is remarkable. But, increasingly, since around the year 2000, America has been showing signs of falling behind. One of the big reasons for this is the increasing inequality of its wealth-distribution. The United States is becoming its own banana republic. The boom for the billionaires is accompanied by stagnation and worse for the bottom 50%. And the consequences of this are showing everywhere. Let’s look then at:

Income GINI (equality) index (the highest GINI being the most unequally distributed):

The top ten (i.e., the worst) of the 162 rated countries are (1) South Africa 63.00, (2) Namibia 59.10, (3) Suriname 57.90, (4) Zambia 57.10, (5) Central African Republic 56.20, (6) Eswatini/Swaziland 54.60, (7) Colombia 54.20, (8) Mozambique 54.00, (9) & (10) tied Botswana & Belize 53.30. America is moving in that direction — increasing its GINI, and this has especially been the case regarding the soaring wealth of the super-rich.

Here are some more countries on this (out of those 162), showing there the badness-ranking on this factor: Brazil is (16) 48.90. U.S. is (46) 41.50.Haiti is (47) 41.10. Iran (49) is 40.90. Kenya is (50) 40.80. China is (67) 38.20. Russia is (84) 36.00. India and Vietnam are tied at (87) 35.70. UK is (93) 35.10. Switzerland is (110) 33.10. Japan is (114) 32.90. France is (120) 32.40. Germany is (125) 31.70. Sweden is (141) 29.30. Norway & Finland & Denmark are tied at (148) 27.70. Belgium (152) is 27.20. Ukraine (157) is 25.60. Slovakia (162) is 23.20.

“World Happiness Report 2022”:

Figure 2.1: Ranking of happiness 2019-2021 (Part 1) … 1. Finland (7.821) 2. Denmark (7.636) 3. Iceland (7.557) 4. Switzerland (7.512) 5. Netherlands (7.415) 6. Luxembourg  (7.404) 7. Sweden (7.384) 8. Norway (7.365) 9. Israel (7.364) 10. New Zealand (7.200) 11. Austria (7.163) 12. Australia (7.162) 13. Ireland (7.041) 14. Germany (7.034) 15. Canada (7.025) 16. United States (6.977) 17. United Kingdom (6.943) 18. Czechia (6.920) 19. Belgium (6.805) 20. France (6.687) 21. Bahrain (6.647) 22. Slovenia (6.630) 23. Costa Rica (6.582) 24. United Arab Emirates (6.576) 25. Saudi Arabia (6.523) 26. Taiwan Province of China (6.512) 27. Singapore (6.480) 28. Romania (6.477) 29. Spain (6.476) 30. Uruguay (6.474) 31. Italy (6.467) 32. Kosovo (6.455) 33. Malta (6.447) 34. Lithuania (6.446) 35. Slovakia (6.391) 36. Estonia (6.341) 37. Panama (6.309) 38. Brazil (6.293) 39. Guatemala (6.262) 40. Kazakhstan (6.234) 41. Cyprus (6.221) 42. Latvia (6.180) 43. Serbia (6.178) 44. Chile (6.172) 45. Nicaragua (6.165) 46. Mexico (6.128) 47. Croatia (6.125) 48. Poland (6.123) 49. El Salvador (6.120) 50. Kuwait (6.106) 51. Hungary (6.086) 52. Mauritius (6.071) 53. Uzbekistan (6.063) 54. Japan (6.039) 55. Honduras (6.022) 56. Portugal (6.016) 57. Argentina (5.967) 58. Greece (5.948) 59. South Korea (5.935) 60. Philippines (5.904) 61. Thailand (5.891) 62. Moldova (5.857) 63. Jamaica (5.850) 64. Kyrgyzstan (5.828) 65. Belarus (5.821) 66. Colombia (5.781) 67. Bosnia and Herzegovina (5.768) 68. Mongolia (5.761) 69. Dominican Republic (5.737) 70. Malaysia (5.711) 71. Bolivia (5.600) 72. China (5.585) 73. Paraguay (5.578) 74. Peru (5.559) 75. Montenegro (5.547) 76. Ecuador (5.533) 77. Vietnam (5.485) 78. Turkmenistan (5.474) 79. North Cyprus (5.467) 80. Russia (5.459) 81. Hong Kong S.A.R. of China (5.425) 82. Armenia (5.399) 83. Tajikistan (5.377) 84. Nepal (5.377) 85. Bulgaria (5.371) 86. Libya  (5.330) 87. Indonesia (5.240) 88. Ivory Coast (5.235) 89. North Macedonia (5.199) 90. Albania (5.199) 91. South Africa (5.194) 92. Azerbaijan  (5.173) 93. Gambia  (5.164) 94. Bangladesh (5.155) 95. Laos (5.140) 96. Algeria (5.122) 97. Liberia  (5.122) 98. Ukraine (5.084) 99. Congo (Brazzaville) (5.075) 100. Morocco (5.060) 101. Mozambique (5.048) 102. Cameroon (5.048) 103. Senegal (5.046) 104. Niger  (5.003) 105. Georgia (4.973) 106. Gabon (4.958) 107. Iraq (4.941) 108. Venezuela (4.925) 109. Guinea (4.891) 110. Iran (4.888) 111. Ghana (4.872) 112. Turkey (4.744) 113. Burkina Faso (4.670) 114. Cambodia (4.640) 115. Benin (4.623) 116. Comoros  (4.609) 117. Uganda (4.603) 118. Nigeria (4.552) 119. Kenya (4.543) 120. Tunisia (4.516) 121. Pakistan (4.516) 122. Palestinian Territories  (4.483) 123. Mali (4.479) 124. Namibia (4.459) 125. Eswatini, Kingdom of  (4.396) 126. Myanmar (4.394) 127. Sri Lanka (4.362) 128. Madagascar  (4.339) 129. Egypt (4.288) 130. Chad  (4.251) 131. Ethiopia (4.241) 132. Yemen  (4.197) 133. Mauritania  (4.153) 134. Jordan (4.152) 135. Togo (4.112) 136. India (3.777) 137. Zambia (3.760) 138. Malawi (3.750) 139. Tanzania (3.702) 140. Sierra Leone (3.574) 141. Lesotho  (3.512) 142. Botswana  (3.471) 143. Rwanda  (3.268) 144. Zimbabwe (2.995) 145. Lebanon (2.955) 146. Afghanistan (2.404)

Current imprisonment rates per 100,000 residents in 223 countries:

Of course, higher numbers are worse, lower numbers are better, on this. And America is among the worst:

1. El Salvador 1086 (was #4 at 564 a year earlier; see this for the explanation)

2. Cuba 794 (was #5 at 510 a year earlier)

3. Rwanda 621

4. Turkmenistan 576

5. American Samoa (USA) 538

6. United States of America 531 (was #1 at 629 a year earlier; so, this has improved sharply the past year)

7. Panama 499

8. Palau 428

9. Bahamas 409

10. Guam (USA) 408

13. Brazil 389

26. Russia 300

54. Taiwan 231

56. Iran 228

69. Venezuela 199

127. China 119

204. India 40

Murder Rate by Country 2023

While 2017’s global murder rate was 6.1 (per 100k people), murder rates varied widely across the globe. Central America and the Caribbean were global hotspots. Again we start with the worst:

El Salvador 52.02 

Jamaica 43.85

Lesotho 43.56 

Honduras 38.93

Belize 37.79

Venezuela 36.69 

South Africa 36.40 

Mexico 29.07

Brazil 27.38 

[Those are way worse than the global average of 6.1.]

Ukraine 6.18

United States 4.96 [not bad; a bit below the global average. Good performers are here:]

United Kingdom 1.20

France 1.20

Uzbekistan 1.14

Sweden 1.08 

Denmark 1.01 

Austria 0.97 

Germany 0.95

Iceland 0.89

Switzerland 0.59 

Netherlands 0.59 

Italy 0.57 

China 0.53

Norway 0.47 

Indonesia 0.43 

Japan 0.26 

Singapore 0.16

Life Expectancy by Country 2023

According to the U.N., the global life expectancy as of 2023 was 70.8 years for males and 76.0 years for females, for an average of 73.4 years. But the figures cited here are not stable. For example: U.S. life expectancy, shown here as 79.74 (U.N. figure), is now 76.1 years down from its all-time high of 78.89 in 2014, according to Peterson-KFF.

Country Rankings:

1.Monaco 87.01 

2.Hong Kong 85.83 [not a country, but U.S. wants it to be]

3.Macau 85.51 [ditto]

4.Japan 84.95 

5.Liechtenstein 84.77 

6.Switzerland 84.38 

7.Singapore 84.27 

8.Italy 84.2 

Vatican City 84.16 

9.South Korea 84.14 

10.Spain 84.05 

Malta 83.85

Australia 83.73

Andorra 83.71 

French Polynesia 83.7 

Sweden 83.65 

San Marino 83.58 

Norway 83.55 

Martinique 83.45 

Israel 83.39

France 83.35

Guadeloupe 83.33 

New Zealand 83.15 

Canada 83.02

Gibraltar 83

N.Korea 83 (World Bank estimate)

Iceland 82.96

Guernsey 82.94 

Ireland 82.87

Reunion 82.78 

Luxembourg 82.74

Netherlands 82.58

Austria 82.57

Finland 82.51

Belgium 82.46

Portugal 82.42

United Kingdom 82.31

Slovenia 82.31

Germany 82.18

Cyprus 82.05

Denmark 82.03

Greece 82

Bermuda 81.75

Qatar 81.73

Jersey 81.43 

Isle Of Man 81.28

New Caledonia 81.18

Chile 81.16

Maldives 81.07

Saint Barthelemy 80.84 

Saint Martin 80.76

Bahrain 80.69

UAE 80.46 

Kuwait 80.45

Costa Rica 80.26

Wallis And Futuna 80.15 

Puerto Rico 79.94

Thailand 79.91

United States 79.74 [but it’s now down to near 76 — Brazil —a big plunge]

Falkland Islands 79.46 

Antigua & Barbuda 79.42

Croatia 79.4

Estonia 79.31

Faroe Islands 79.07

Oman 78.97

China 78.79

Turkey 78.68

Poland 78.6

Panama 78.56

Guam 78.52

Slovakia 78.36

Cuba 78.33

Uruguay 78.16

Saudi Arabia 78.1

Ecuador 78.08

Albania 78.06

Mayotte 78.01 

Argentina 77.98

Barbados 77.86

Montenegro 77.78

St. Pierre/Miquelon 77.78 

Anguilla 77.64 

French Guiana 77.63 

Colombia 77.51

Algeria 77.33

Hungary 77.09

Iran 76.97

Peru 76.96

Tunisia 76.94

Cape Verde 76.93

Aruba 76.9

Lithuania 76.85

Curacao 76.82

Sri Lanka 76.8

British Virgin Is. 76.54

Malaysia 76.42

Armenia 76.23

Brazil 76.18

Bosnia/Herzegovina 76.18

Lebanon 76.07

Latvia 76.06

Turks And Caicos 76.06

Sint Maarten 76.02

Montserrat 76.01 

U.S. Virgin Is. 76

Cayman Islands 75.72

Mauritius 75.69

Grenada 75.49

Tokelau 75.49 

Cook Islands 75.34 

North Macedonia 75.26

Serbia 75.21

Morocco 75.2

Romania 75.14

Mexico 75.04

Belarus 75.03

Jordan 75.02

Seychelles 75

Trinidad/Tobago 74.87

Nicaragua 74.8

Vietnam 74.74

Belize 74.62

Russia 74.57

Brunei 74.54

Bahamas 74.49

Dominican Repub. 74.36

Palestine 74.28

Dominica 74.2

Saint Lucia 74.12

Paraguay 74.1

Bangladesh 73.98

Czech Republic 73.71

Azerbaijan 73.61

Honduras 73.47

El Salvador 73.38

Libya 73.25

Ukraine 73.02

Mongolia 72.94

Venezuela 72.89

American Samoa 72.87 

Bulgaria 72.84

Suriname 72.79

Samoa 72.75

Greenland 72.72

Bhutan 72.49

Syria 72.45

Georgia 72.43

Jamaica 72.37

Philippines 72.3

St. Kitts/Nevis 72.18

Iraq 72.05

India 72.03

Uzbekistan 71.78

Cambodia 71.46

Tajikistan 71.43

Tonga 71.41

Niue 71.33

Micronesia 71.32

Kyrgyzstan 71.16

Indonesia 71.1

Solomon Islands 70.86

Egypt 70.81

Nepal 70.78

Vanuatu 70.69

Kazakhstan 70.36

Guatemala 70.15

Guyana 69.8

Turkmenistan 69.54

Moldova 69.51

Senegal 69.31

Laos 69.27

Sao Tome/Principe 68.89

Bolivia 68.78

Fiji 68.45

Kiribati 67.83

Tanzania 67.6

Myanmar 67.46

Rwanda 67.35

Pakistan 67.34

Eritrea 67.32

Ethiopia 66.65

Madagascar 66.43

Gabon 66.16 

Papua New Guinea 66.12

Sudan 66.1

Botswana 66.05

Palau 65.54

Mauritania 65.48

Marshall Islands 65.28

Tuvalu 65.05

Comoros 65.04

Haiti 64.75

Ghana 64.53

Yemen 64.52

Afghanistan 64.23

Nauru 64.19 

Gambia 64.12

Uganda 63.84

Djibouti 63.71

Malawi 63.67

Kenya 63.34

Congo Republic 63.26

Angola 63.24

Zambia 62.96

Niger 62.93

South Africa 62.89

Burundi 62.5

Mozambique 62.37

Liberia 62.04

Equatorial Guinea 61.97

Cameroon 61.92

Zimbabwe 61.92 

Togo 61.82

Sierra Leone 60.79

D.R. Congo 60.63

Burkina Faso 60.57

Benin 60.45

Ivory Coast 60.11

Mali 60.03

Guinea 59.55

Namibia 59.53

Eswatini 57.71

Somalia 57.35

South Sudan 56.51

Central Af. Rep. 55.48

Lesotho 54.91

Nigeria 53.87

Chad 53.68

ALSO:

On 23 May 2023, I headlined “Suppressed NATO Study Finds U.S. Ranks Low on Democracy”, and on 24 March 2023 I headlined “How Nations’ Citizens Rate Their Own Government” and both of the surveys showed that the residents in China rate their Government a democracy and trustworthy at vastly higher percentages than Americans do. (But U.S. Government calls China a “dictatorship.”)

Earlier, I had reported that Transparency International is a scam and that other and more reliable indicators of how corrupt the various countries are indicate that America is much more corrupt than TI acknowledges: it’s very corrupt.

The U.S. Government rigs international rankings (as that last link documents), but, in fact, America already is not a particularly well-performing country on any of the major forward-looking measures; and, long-term, its goodness-ranking is clearly heading downward, toward worse. The data on that are, by now, overwhelming, and clear. America is now clearly a declining country. Countries that are allied with it are allied with a declining, not with a rising, country. Furthermore, they are allied with a dictatorship.

What is better evidence than the international rankings in order to determine whether the U.S. Government is telling the truth about its international rankings and about whether or not America is the only indispensable country?