Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Data Paper
Data Paper
Ryan Dalley
Rural Sociology
Professor Gilles
This paper is an evaluation on ten countries and the comparisons between them. The
countries included are; Russia, China, South Africa, Brazil, the United States, Germany, Kenya,
Cambodia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. This essay will compare and contrast their
economic and demographic data, along with measures of social well-being. Of all countries, a
major emphasis will surround my destined sojourn country Ireland, its neighboring country the
When compared to the United States many might think that Ireland’s economy and
demography stands no chance. In actuality, the data collected in the two tables analyzes each
country per capita and when scaled down, the data shows that Ireland and the U.S. are much
alike. As labeled in the first data table, Ireland’s Human development index is ranked very
highly (8th) and is listed two positions ahead of the United States (10th). This is intriguing
because according to U.S. News the United States is the most powerful country in the world, yet
they fall behind Ireland and 8 other countries on the HDI rankings per capita. A huge fault the
U.S. and Ireland both have is carrying an astonishing amount of debt. The Government debt as a
percentage of each country’s GDP lists Ireland with 117% and the U.S. 107% , each collecting
more debt than any other country being studied. Given this information, one can only think how
did they let their country’s debt get to this state? And what steps can they take to restore
themselves? Demographically and economically speaking, the U.S. and Ireland are very similar
except for one aspect, taxes. Ireland’s taxes in proportion to their total GDP is doubled that of the
United States. Nearly 20% of Ireland's GDP falls under taxes, while only 11% of the GDP from
Dalley 2
the U.S. is taxed based. The most differences between Ireland and the U.S. are found in their
qualities of life. When examining each country’s quality of life, Ireland is found to be more
reputable over the United States in every category listed on the data table. For example, the U.S.
has over twice the amount of adolescent pregnancies as Ireland, has a higher prison population
with 618 more inmates than Ireland per 100,000 people, and for every 1 homicide in Ireland
there are 3.55 homicides in the United States. I believe that the poverty gap has a huge role to
play in the comparison of quality of life between these two countries. The United States has a far
greater population than Ireland and has twice the percentage of people living in poverty. In
summary, I believe that because of these proponents the quality of life is definitely going to
favor Ireland. Another major distinction falls under maternity leave, the biggest difference
between the U.S. and every other country is that the U.S. offers an 84 day unpaid maternity
leave. Meanwhile, Ireland offers more days off than every other country with 182 days and still
pays for this leave of absence. Overall, the demography and economy between these countries
reflect many similarities, while the true distinctions between the United States and Ireland are
Ireland’s largest neighboring country is the United Kingdom. The U.K. is ranked 16th on
the Human Development Index, falling 8 countries behind Ireland. Although most of the data
tables lean in favor of Ireland, these two countries have some close similarities. To begin,
income inequality refers to how evenly or unevenly income is distributed in a society and
represents the gap between the rich and the poor. One similarity between the United Kingdom
and Ireland is their low income inequality. They have the exact same income inequality
measured as 5.3 quintiles which is very low when compared to the other countries. This
represents that each country has an even spread of income being made amongst their population.
Dalley 3
I believe that these countries have a short gap of inequality due to their tax and transfer system.
Meaning, the wealthy are taxed more than others which is a very effective way to redistribute
income. This being said, while the income inequality of each country is very low, taxes are very
high. Another similarity between Ireland and its neighboring country is that they are both
notorious for high taxes. In comparison to each country’s GDP, the United Kingdom has 25.4%
of it made up from taxes as compared to Ireland’s 19.3%. Out of all ten countries, only South
Africa has a greater ratio of taxes in their total GDP. When comparing the qualities of life
between the U.K. and Ireland, both countries come off as very safe places to live. After all, they
list among the top in life expectancy at birth, with Ireland’s expectancy being 81.1 years and the
U.K’s being 80.8 years. Not to mention, for every 100,000 people; Ireland has a homicide rate of
1.1 and maternal mortality rate of 8. While the United kingdom has a homicide rate of .9 and
maternal mortality rate of 9 per 100,000 people. In relationship to the other 8 countries these
numbers are found to be extremely low and on the safe end. In the final analysis, the United
Kingdom and Ireland still contain many differences as well. Despite being neighboring countries,
Ireland offers a huge 182 day paid maternity leave while the U.K. offer just 14 days, resulting in
a 168 day difference between the two countries. Another dissimilarity regards the prison
population. For every 100,000 people there are 80 prisoners in Ireland to the United Kingdom’s
146. I believe the population difference between the two countries plays a key role in the
differences of their qualities of life. I assume that the major distinctions between paid maternity
leave points towards the differences in population. The U.K. has roughly 60 million more
inhabitants than Ireland. This being said, the price paid for a longer maternity leave would be
much more significant in the U.K. as supposed to Ireland. Furthermore, countries with higher
populations are more prone to having social discrepancies leading towards more crimes and
Dalley 4
prisoners. As data shows, for being neighboring countries they have many similarities, but with a
significant difference in population comes a divergent standard of life. Ireland ranks among the
upper percentile in each data table category with few outliers, its neighboring country the United
Every country showcases their own unique culture that separates itself from rest. One
separation that surprised me regards China’s quality of life and its homicide rates. China has a
large population 1.379 billion people, yet they have the lowest homicide rate out of all 10
countries. The rate being .8 homicides for every 100,000 people. I get the impression that their
homicide rates are so low because China is a society where people generally have strong respect
for personal public conduct along with criminal laws. It takes a lot of effort to keep the crime
rate down in such a huge country which only proposes the thought, are laws strict enough here
United States? Another statistic that surprised me most was that the United States has the largest
percentage of female legislators, senior official, and senior managers at 43.4 percent. One
controversial topic that I feel is constantly being provoked in the U.S. is gender inequality. I find
it reassuring that despite the alleged “gender war” between men and women in the workforce, it
isn’t nearly as bad as some see it to be. It turns out that the United States has the highest
percentage of females in high up positions than any of the other 9 countries. Another major
discrepancy listed involves the maternal mortality rate of Ireland and that of Kenya. Ireland has
a very low maternal mortality rate of 8 deaths per 100,000 people while Kenya has an extremely
high rate of 510 deaths. In essence, this illustrates the differences in life between a developed
country and a developing country. Kenya has an extremely low HDI ranking of 146 (trailing 138
countries behind Ireland). The key aspect of Kenya’s dramatic difference in quality of life
country is their lack of wealth, technology, and structure. With a lack of protection Kenyans are
Dalley 5
more prone to reproduction. Not only that, but they lack the medical attention when being
compared to a developed country. With disease, lack of nourishment, and lack of options,
Kenya’s maternal mortality rates are set up for failure as they have one of the highest deaths per
More often than not it’s the biggest, most industrialized, and most powerful nations in the
worlds that receive the most attention. This data promotes that once countries are scaled down on
an equal scale that there are shocking new frontrunners. Categorizing demographics, the
economy, and social well-being per capita allows for small countries to be equally compared to
the countries with immense populations. By doing so we are able to educate ourselves on the
specific countries rank among highest in each category and bring light to the countries lacking
behind.
Works Cited
http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/united-states
Dalley 6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS