Martin World News- Best Nation edition

So the news looked a lot same-old-same-old, and I decided, what do I get when I type in the search, "World's most _ nation"?  Answer?  Not as much as if I'd have come up with stuff myself.  However, I did find SOME fun stuff, which I will share... right after I feed Misty...


Okay, so the first thing I found was some long drawn out CCSU study on literacy.  It was based on per capita studies on Newspapers (Finland), libraries (Estonia), years in school coupled with money spent on schools (Brazil), assessment scores over time (Singapore), and % of homes with computer access (Netherlands).  In these categories, the US came in 12th, tied for 29th (ouch!), 9th, tied for 12th, and 23rd.  23rd, in % of computers?  I call BS there.

Long story short, Finland was declared most literate.  A key attribute if you are going to live in the country with the longest winter.  Books for reading, newspapers to get the fire started.  Amazingly enough, despite being no higher than 9th in any category, the USA came in 9th.


Next thing I found was population- not exactly the most exciting categories, but hang on.  China and India are 1-2, with well over 1.3 BILLION people each.  The US is third, but- you could fit three more US's in between the US and India...

Newsweek and US News and World Report had a couple of lists that are kinda interesting when put up against each other.  The NW was the most powerful nations... the USN was the BEST countries, by quality of life, etc.  The US got the most powerful, natch, but slipped to 7th on best.  Russia and China were 2-3 on the power list, and not surprisingly nowhere to be seen on the best list.  Germany took 4 on power AND best; the UK nabbed 5 and 6, respectively.  France got a 6 on power and boned on best... Japan got 7 on power but a #3 on best.  Israel got #8 on power, followed by South Korea and Saudi Arabia.  Switzerland took best in show, Canada got 2nd, Australia 5th, and it was Sweden, the Netherlands, and Norway 8, 9, and 10.  Which reminds me, Finland also got happiest country, beating out Denmark 2 years running.  Apparently it has nothing to do with alcohol, though, ruining an easy joke for me, but leading me to the discovery that there are 7 nations who top 90% in beer as a percentage of total alcohol consumed- Kiribati, Brunei (100% each), Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Vietnam, and Guinea; of course, the two heaviest drinker nations, Tunisia and the Maldives, easily beat all seven put together for per capita alcohol.  The US was about 47% beer drinking; Canada came in just over 45%, Australia, 39%, and the UK at 35%.

A site called Visual Capitalist came up with a way to combine a bushel basket full of stats into a "Brand strength index" for nations, and then cross-bred that with GDP to get the most valuable "Brand" nations.  The US won that one too, ahead of China, Germany, and Japan;  the index itself was won by Singapore, trailed by German speaking Europe (well, just about; Switzerland, Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg).


At this point, I decided to ask the direct questions that were most important:

Most chocolate consumed:  Switzerland
Most pizza: Norway (US #2)
Best beer:  Belgium (US #2 again)

Most obese:  Surprisingly, these countries had to stand in the shadow (see what I did there?) of Nauru.

National champion Pole Vaulter 15.3 inches...

And two out of three web sites proclaim Venezuela as the prettiest girls...  although, I'm guessing you better like them thin....