Brad Eylander

Econ 212
Mid-term paper
(data after the essay)

The countries that will be taking a look at is the Untied States, United Kingdom, Japan,
Argentina and South Africa. When looking at the GDP per capita from each country we see that the
United States is on top and Argentina is on bottom. Generally, low GDP per capita shows the quality of
life is not as good as areas with high GDP per capita. Based on the data, people in America, the UK,
and South Africa should, theoretically, have higher incomes and thereby making the quality of living
good. Unfortunately, according to the data, places like Japan and Argentina have less fortunate living
standards because the capita is lower per person. Seeing that Japan has a well developed economy it's
strange to see the GDP per capita low. One reason why the GPD per capita is low may be because the
population is really high and the economy doesn't export a lot of goods to compensate more for the
population.

Taking a look at the GPD per capita many may assume that the countries with high GDP per
capita have lower unemployment rates. However, the tables show that South Africa has the most
unemployment rate at 25%, while Argentina is at 8% and the other three below 5%. According to this,
the GDP doesn't give an accurate presumption on what the quality of life is in South Africa. Per capita,
Africa has a lot of money, but if unemployment is high that must mean that the rest of the population is
taking all the work and money, not leaving much to the unemployed. One might also presume that
Japan has high unemployment because the GDP per capita is low, but judging a country by it's GDP as
we see again can be miss leading. Due to unemployment being low in (>10%), I assume that the
quality of life is pretty good because a large size of the population is earning money to live. The reason
why Argentina is higher then the UK, US and Japan is probably due to the reason that Argentina isn't as
well developed as the others.

The education system for the countries is surprisingly well. Despite the countries differences in
GDP and unemployment, all the countries are educating their people well. Every country except
Argentina, has high literacy, well above 95%. With a good education system the quality of life for the
economy is doing well; people are learning how to keep up with the technological world around them
and education also helps them know more about helping themselves and others. Argentina compared
with the other counties, isn't doing as well in their education system because only 86% of the
population can read. Usually a better education system would produce more jobs, but looking at the
unemployment numbers with South Africa having a high literacy, 25% of the population is still
unemployed, while Argentina having a lower literacy rate still has more people working. The US, UK,
and Japan have high literacy and low unemployment, so produce is still going to do well in these
countries.

Pollution, as many people look at it, is due to the economy using there natural resources in high
extent. The top countries with SO2 in the air is first, UK, second is South Africa , third is the US and
Japan, while Argentina is the lowest. Having low SO2 levels is good because it creates a more clean
environment for people to live, making them happy to live there. Don't be quick to assume that
pollution in major countries makes the quality of life bad, on the contrary, because SO2 is high that
means th e economy is doing well and quality of life is still good. Comparing countries, the US GPD
per capita being high makes some assume that the economy is growing and they are aggressively using
their resources and thus, SO2 levels would then increase. But once again the GDP per capita data
doesn't follow with the SO2 levels because the US actually has quite low SO2 pollution levels
compared to South Africa and UK. One reason why both UK and South Africa have high SO2 levels is
because they consume a lot of coal for their economy, even more so then the US. Also, knowing that
Japan has a high economy, why don't they have high SO2 levels? The reason is because Japan uses
nuclear reactors to power the country which don't emit as much SO2 as oil or coal.

Since the data only showed life expectancy for Japan, the UK and US, I'm assuming that the
death rate is too random or not many people are on record in South Africa and Argentina, so people
come and go, not knowing who he/she might be. However, looking to the available data, one can see
that all three, -US, UK, and Japan-, all have high life expectancy rates with Japan having the highest.
Therefore, the quality of life in Japan is probably better then those in US and UK because Japan get to
live longer, and have potential to get more things accomplished. Two major factors that cause Japans
higher life expectancy rate is pollution and diet. Japan (as seen before) has lower pollution allowing
less unclean particles into someones body system, keeping a body more clean and productive. The
second reason, and for that matter, the biggest reason for Japan having a high life expectancy is because
they have better diets. The US and UK eat more food and the food they do eat isn't good for the body;
such as fast-food, restaurants, and pizza. Japan on the other hand doesn't have as much money, so they
don't spend their money on things they don't need to like expensive food and restaurants, rather, they
motley get the basic white rich and other health foods. Even though US and UK don't eat as well, the
life quality is still good because they still have high life expectancy years above 65.

Economy Statistics > Statistics > GDP > PPP (per capita) (Latest
available) by country
Rank Countries Amount (top to bottom)
#3 United States: $39,319.40 per capita
#12 United Kingdom: $30,314.72 per capita
#16 Japan: $29,619.96 per capita
#46 Argentina: $12,301.23 per capita
#51 South Africa: $11,503.29 per capita
Weighted average: $24,611.72 per capita

DEFINITION: Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) in Millions of International Dollars, 2004. Per capita
figures expressed per 1 population.

Labor Statistics > Statistics > Unemployment rate (Latest

available) by country
VIEW DATA: Totals Definition Source Printable version
Bar Graph Map
Rank Countries Amount (top to bottom)
#24 South Africa: 25.5 %
#91 Argentina: 8.7 %
#133 United States: 4.8 %
#140 Japan: 4.1 %
#159 United Kingdom: 2.9 %
Weighted average: 9.2 %

DEFINITION: The percent of the labor force that is without jobs. Substantial underemployment might
be noted.

Education Statistics > Statistics > Literacy > Total population

(Latest available) by country
VIEW DATA: Totals Definition Source Printable version
Bar Graph Map

Rank Countries Amount (top to bottom)

#36 United States: 99 %
#37 Japan: 99 %
#42 United Kingdom: 99 %
#66 Argentina: 97.2 %
#130 South Africa: 86.4 %
Weighted average: 96.1 %

DEFINITION: This entry includes a definition of literacy and Census Bureau percentages for the total
population, males, and females. There are no universal definitions and standards of literacy. Unless
otherwise specified, all rates are based on the most common definition - the ability to read and write at
a specified age. Detailing the standards that individual countries use to assess the ability to read and
write is beyond the scope of our source. Information on literacy, while not a perfect measure of
educational results, is probably the most easily available and valid for international comparisons.

Environment Statistics > Statistics > SO2 emissions per

populated area (Latest available) by country
VIEW DATA: Totals Definition Source Printable version
 Bar Graph Map Correlations

Rank Countries Amount (top to bottom)

5,370 thousand metric
#7 United Kingdom:
tons/squ
2,350 thousand metric
#25 South Africa:
tons/squ
1,680 thousand metric
#38 United States:
tons/squ
970 thousand metric
#50 Japan:
tons/squ
150 thousand metric
#109 Argentina:
tons/squ
2,104.0 thousand metric
Weighted average:
tons/squ

DEFINITION: SO2 emissions per populated land area

Units: 1000 Metric Tons/Sq. Km. of Populated Land Area
Units: We obtained the total emissions for each country by summarizing emissions data, originally
available as a grid map with 1 degree x 1 degree cells. Air pollution is generally greatest in densely
populated areas. To take this into account, we used the Gridded Population of the World dataset
available from CIESIN and calculated the total land area in each country inhabited with a population
density of greater than 5 persons per sq. km. We then used this land area as a denominator for the
emissions data.

Health Statistics > Statistics > Life expectancy > Healthy years
(Latest available) by country
VIEW DATA: Totals Definition Source Printable version
Bar Graph Map Correlations

Rank Countries Amount (top to bottom)

#1 Japan: 73.6 years
#20 United Kingdom: 69.6 years
#22 United States: 67.6 years
Weighted average: 70.3 years

DEFINITION: Estimated number of years of life while healthy, as defined by the OECD. Estimates
for 2001. See source for details.