by Daniel Rigney
News on the statistical front. Americans are no longer 5 percent of the world’s people. For many years, social statisticians have highlighted the size of the U.S. footprint in the world by noting that the United States, with only 5 percent of the world’s population, accounts for X percent of the planet’s total Y, where Y is energy consumption, pollution, incarceration, or some other measure of social significance.
This “5-percent formula” has become something of a cliché in statistical reporting of U.S. and world trends. But the formula is about to change. As of now, based on my simple calculation of data from Worldometers, the U.S. population of about 322 million comprises only 4.47 percent of the world’s 7.2 billion people.
Rounding off to the nearest whole number, that’s closer to 4 percent than to 5 percent, of the passengers aboard Starship Earth.
Calling all media. Statements of the following sort are now in need of revision or updating:
Wikipedia: “While the United States represents about 5 percent of the world's population, it houses around 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.” [That should now read “about 4 percent of the world's population,” making American society and its de facto policy of mass incarceration seem even more punitive than before.]
Popular Science: “We make up 5 percent of the global population, but use 20 percent of the world's energy. We eat 15 percent of the world's meat. We produce 40 percent of the world's garbage.” [Now, at 4 percent, we’ll seem even more voracious and wasteful.]
And this from NBC News: “Despite only making up five per cent of the world's population, the United States accounts for almost a third of the world's weight due to obesity, the researchers found.” [When we round down to 4 percent, we seem even larger.]
Scientific American stands on safer ground when it carefully words a story this way: “With less than 5 percent of world population, the U.S. uses one-third of the world’s paper, a quarter of the world’s oil, 23 percent of the coal, 27 percent of the aluminum, and 19 percent of the copper….Our per capita use of energy, metals, minerals, forest products, fish, grains, meat, and even fresh water dwarfs that of people living in the developing world.” (italics added)
Thus far, I’ve found no news story adopting the 4-percent formula and reporting that the United States, with only about 4 percent of the world’s population, accounts for X percent of Y.
When the new round-off comes into wider usage, the United States will look worse on undesirable measures such as energy overconsumption, pollution and incarceration. But the U.S. will look better than before on other, more desirable measures, such as innovation.
For example, the U.S., now constituting only about 4 percent of the world’s population, accounts for more than 23 percent of recent intellectual property filings worldwide. Not bad, per capita, for such a small but inventive populace.
Meanwhile, the 95 percent of the world’s people who are not U.S. Americans just went to nearly 96.
The U.S. is not getting smaller. The rest of humanity is getting bigger. Whether we think that's a good thing or not may depend on where on Earth we are.
Danagram
News on the statistical front. Americans are no longer 5 percent of the world’s people. For many years, social statisticians have highlighted the size of the U.S. footprint in the world by noting that the United States, with only 5 percent of the world’s population, accounts for X percent of the planet’s total Y, where Y is energy consumption, pollution, incarceration, or some other measure of social significance.
This “5-percent formula” has become something of a cliché in statistical reporting of U.S. and world trends. But the formula is about to change. As of now, based on my simple calculation of data from Worldometers, the U.S. population of about 322 million comprises only 4.47 percent of the world’s 7.2 billion people.
Rounding off to the nearest whole number, that’s closer to 4 percent than to 5 percent, of the passengers aboard Starship Earth.
Calling all media. Statements of the following sort are now in need of revision or updating:
Wikipedia: “While the United States represents about 5 percent of the world's population, it houses around 25 percent of the world’s prisoners.” [That should now read “about 4 percent of the world's population,” making American society and its de facto policy of mass incarceration seem even more punitive than before.]
Popular Science: “We make up 5 percent of the global population, but use 20 percent of the world's energy. We eat 15 percent of the world's meat. We produce 40 percent of the world's garbage.” [Now, at 4 percent, we’ll seem even more voracious and wasteful.]
And this from NBC News: “Despite only making up five per cent of the world's population, the United States accounts for almost a third of the world's weight due to obesity, the researchers found.” [When we round down to 4 percent, we seem even larger.]
Scientific American stands on safer ground when it carefully words a story this way: “With less than 5 percent of world population, the U.S. uses one-third of the world’s paper, a quarter of the world’s oil, 23 percent of the coal, 27 percent of the aluminum, and 19 percent of the copper….Our per capita use of energy, metals, minerals, forest products, fish, grains, meat, and even fresh water dwarfs that of people living in the developing world.” (italics added)
Thus far, I’ve found no news story adopting the 4-percent formula and reporting that the United States, with only about 4 percent of the world’s population, accounts for X percent of Y.
When the new round-off comes into wider usage, the United States will look worse on undesirable measures such as energy overconsumption, pollution and incarceration. But the U.S. will look better than before on other, more desirable measures, such as innovation.
For example, the U.S., now constituting only about 4 percent of the world’s population, accounts for more than 23 percent of recent intellectual property filings worldwide. Not bad, per capita, for such a small but inventive populace.
Meanwhile, the 95 percent of the world’s people who are not U.S. Americans just went to nearly 96.
The U.S. is not getting smaller. The rest of humanity is getting bigger. Whether we think that's a good thing or not may depend on where on Earth we are.
Danagram
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