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Americans are a various , wacky group of masses , and here are some number to prove it . From the amount of trash we boil out to our very odd beliefs , here ’s a look at somestartling facts about Americans .
1 . Junk galore . Each American cast out about 4.4 pounds ( 2 kilograms ) of trash every individual mean solar day , according to theEnvironmental Protection Agency ’s late 2012 figures . When the rural area ’s population is accounted for , that means some 1.4 billion pounds ( 635 million kilo ) of trash gets fling in the U.S. daily . Although we ’re among the most uneconomical masses on the planet , we still father less municipal unanimous waste than several island land , particularly in the Caribbean . These modest , set-apart countries get from a want of waste direction options and base . Also playing a part in the waste job are the large number of tourists , who produce loads of rubbish while traveling . AWorld Bank report from 2012puts U.S. per capita municipal solid waste charge per unit at about 5.7 pounds per day , but Trinidad and Tobago is the worst , at 14.4 punt .
More than 40 percent of Americans believe in ghosts, according to a poll.
2 . Energy gluttons . TheEnergy Information Administrationreckons that of the full worldwide energy white plague in 2012 of 529 quadrillion British thermic building block ( Btu ) , the United States gobbled up 18 per centum . Keep in mind the United States support about 320 million people — just 4.4 percent ofthe domain ’s populationof about 7.2 billion .
3 . Twilight of the gods . Although a firm majority of U.S. adults — 74 pct — believe in a god , this trend has throw off from 82 pct in 2005 , a Harris Interactive canvass found in 2013 . Many other surveys have documented this rise in irreligion , couch the build at around 20 to 30 pct of the universe that is not theistic , a course specially prominent among millennials .
4 . Very superstitious . Notably , that same Harris poll find that 42 per centum ofAmericans believe in ghost , 26 per centum in witch and 24 pct in reincarnation . The respective beliefs in Casper and multiple life have remain steady since 2005 , but crone dropped by 5 percentage point . [ Are Ghosts Real ? The Pseudoscience of Ghost Hunting ]
Fewer Americans believe in God today than in 2005.
5 . Crackpot ideas . Meanwhile , 7 per centum of Americans trust the synodic month landing place was faked , allot toa Public Policy Polling survey in 2013 . Four percent supposedly snitch to believing that " shape - tilt reptilian mass control our world by lead on human kind and gaining power " — although maybe these were just jokester . Nowthat’sa survey question .
6 . Scientifically minded , part I.Perhaps a central cause for a big identification number of Americans ' dubious notions : our mediocre Department of Education statistic compared with other countries . The most recent readiness of data from 2012 reported by the Program for International Student Assessment ( PISA ) deport this out . PISA — which prevent chit on reading power , skill literacy and mathematics among 15 - yr - olds — ranked the United States 27thin science out of 64 countries , and an even more middling rank of 35th in math .
7 . Scientifically minded , part II.Despite less - than - stellar Education Department ranking , the United States is the global loss leader in scientific publication . The most late datacompiled by Thomson Reutersshows U.S. researchers authoring 27.8 percent of the approximately 1.27 million papers publish in 2012 , withChinain 2d place at 14 percent . The United States has fall away in its global share of the pie , however , from a third of the approximately 850,000 scientific newspaper publish in 2003 , back when China answer for for merely 4 percent .
8 . Bad medicine . According to a 2014 survey of 11 plentiful state bythe Commonwealth Fund , the United States ranked dead last in overall health care performance , in metric such as fairness of care , efficiency and " healthy lives . " ( A three - part beat of " mortality conformable to medical care , infant mortality and healthy life expectancy at age 60 . " ) . Another reason for this inadequate operation is in reality a top ranking garner by the United States — the highest health expenditure per capita . The average American pass $ 8,505 a year on medical care , more than every country , with the Swiss coming in second , at $ 5,643 ) , but whose wellness care is ranked at No . 2 in the study , behind the United Kingdom .
9 . Early croakers . Speaking of life expectancy , the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairsandother organizationspeg the U.S. around 40th worldwide , at 77.97 years overall , breaking down by gender as 75.35 for men and 80.51 for women . Life expectancy at birth indicate how long a neonate could wait to subsist if the patterns of mortality ( at birth ) were to stay the same throughout their life . [ Infographic : Global Life Expectancy ]
10 . Packing on the exercising weight . A 2014 study in the journalThe Lancetconfirmed , again , that the U.S. is the most overweight country on Earth . Compared with 38 percent of men and 36.9 percentage of women worldwide who areoverweight or rotund , 70.9 percent of men and 61.9 per centum of women fall into that category in the United States . China has the second - highest absolute routine of people with unhealthy weight , and a few countries , such as Egypt and Qatar , actually have high obesity rate than America . Another study of U.S. men and womenfound that intimately 40 percent of men and nearly 30 percent of women were fleshy ( withbody hoi polloi indexesbetween 25 and 29 , and about 35 percentage of Isle of Man and about 37 percent of woman were obese ( BMIs of 30 or higher ) , according to the study print in June 2015 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine .
11 . The doc spread . In über - plentiful Qatar , common people sure have a lot of doctors to tend to them — 7.7 per 1,000 multitude , the highest globally , according tothe most late World Bank datacollected in 2010 . The U.S ranks low for highly-developed nations , with only 2.5 doctor per 1,000 hoi polloi ( 2005 data ) ; most European country , for instance , have more than three . Cuba , famously , has rafts of doctor — 6.7 per 1,000 people ( 2010 information ) , tops in the man except for Qatar and also - crazy - racy Monaco , which has 7.2 per 1,000 people , accord to data collect in 2012 . The time to come face bleak in this respect for U.S. residents , as one 2015 reportby the Association of American Medical Collegessuggests by 2025 the country will be in need of between 46,000 and 90,000 more physicians to wish for patient role .
12 . Connected , kinda . grant to2014 data from Nielsen , 71 percent of Americans own a smartphones . While on a par with many other explicate nations , the U.S. lags way behind the United Arab Emirates , where85 pct of UAE nationalsown at least one smartphone . And Americans overpoweringly take Apple phone ( 42.7 percent of those surveyed ) , followed by Samsung ( 29.3 percentage ) , the 2014 survey unveil .
13 . Connected , kinda , part II . TheWorld Bankreckons that 84.2 pct of Americans were Internet drug user in 2013 . The top three nations ? Norway at 95.1 per centum , Bermuda at 95.3 percent , and Iceland at 96.5 percent .
14 . Climate change outliers . Just 54 percent of Americans fit in that ongoing clime alteration is largely the result of human natural action , according toa 2014 survey by U.K. market enquiry party Ipsos MORI . That slender majority contrast with 93 pct in China , the high of the countries poll , and is still well brusk of the 64 pct in Australia and the United Kingdom , the other countries agreeing least with the financial statement .
15 . The sound from across the pond . Americans sync up with the British when it get to music . Of thetop 10 well - selling music artistsof all fourth dimension in the United States , according to theRecording Industry Association of America , four hail from the United Kingdom : The Beatles admit the top spot with 178 million albums sold , outpace American nation musician Garth Brooks , in the No . 2 slot with 135 million units sold . The rest of the top 10 : Elvis Presley , Led Zeppelin ( British ) , Eagles , Billy Joel , Michael Jackson , Pink Floyd ( British ) , Elton John ( British ) and Barbara Streisand ( all - American , alas ) .
16 . Standing not quite as tall . For cheeseparing to 200 years , spanning the Revolutionary War stop in the mid-18th hundred to the World War II epoch in the mid-20th hundred , Americans were among the tall people in the world , thanks to abundant land and resources in our comparatively sparsely populated nation , according to John Komlos , a professor emeritus of economic history at the University of Munich , as account by BBC Future . pinnacle have leveled off , however , for around five X , at around 5 groundwork 9 inches for men and 5 foot 4 inches for women . westerly and northerly European populations , such as the Dutch , have since become the tallest on Earth , probably owe to better access code to wellness care in these nations ' socialised systems , Komlos say .
17 . motorise love liaison . According to the most recentWorld Bank data , the United States had 809 motor vehicle per 1,000 people in 2011 . That ’s top in the world , except for the three tiny , rich European res publica of Liechtenstein , Monaco and San Marino , with 826 , 842 and a humongous 1,263 cars per 1,000 people , respectively .
18 . Locked up . The United States incarcerate more people than any other country . allot to theInternational Centre for Prison Studies , the country presently has more than 2.2 million people behind bar . That works out to about 22 percent of the total global population of inmates , shocking when considering that the U.S. supports just 4.4 percent of the world ’s population .
19 . The protrusion . Among developed nations with consummate , reliable statistic , the U.S. has the highest teen pregnancy rate , according to a recent report fromthe Guttmacher Institute . Statistically , out of 1,000 miss ages 15 to 19 , 57 are pregnant at any given prison term . New Zealand is next at 51 , followed by England and Wales at 47 . Switzerland has the low teenaged maternity rate of eight per 1,000 .
20 . genuinely a melting pot . America is less culturally diverse than you might think . Although on pace to be a " majority - nonage " nation by the former 2040s , wherein no one ethnic chemical group prevail the population , as Caucasians long have , study show America is not particularly diverse on a linguistic , pagan or ethnic level , compared with many other countries . In a 2013 German study , for instance , investigator used words and ethnicity as indicators of cultural diversity . The U.S. rank in the middle , with countries such as Chad , South Africa and Papua New Guinea — with their infinite kindred , languages and distinct cultures and religions — ranking as the most divers . Least divers example include Argentina and Rwanda , the latter because of the genocide of the Tutsi minority in the nineties . A2003 sketch in the Journal of Economic Growthshowed similar results , ranking mostly African countries as the most culturally diverse .
