How The US Ranks Internationally?
The ranking agencies show how poorly the United States has ranked in many important areas of domestic public policy.
Here’s a quick run-down of where the US stands in comparison to other OECD countries and in some cases, other countries throughout the world.
WERE NUMBER ONE! (good rankings we should be proud of):
But . . . .
WERE NUMBER ONE!? (Not good, in fact embarrassing)…
When looking at high-income countries with populations of 10 million or more, the United States ranks number 1 in firearm homicides. Firearm homicide rate is 13 times greater in the United States than in France; 22 times greater than in all the countries of the European Union, and 23 times greater than in Australia, according to data collected by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. In an earlier 2018 Global Burden of Disease study, the United States ranked eighth out of 64 high-income countries and territories for homicides by firearms. Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, both US territories, ranked first and third on the list of 64 countries and territories.
In the United States, most homicides are caused by guns. In 2022, some 85 percent of all homicides in America were caused by firearms; but in Canada, it was only 40 percent; in Australia, just 11 percent; and England and Wales, only 4 percent.
Sources: Leach-Kemon and Sirull, “On Gun Violence, the US is an Outlier.” “Global Mortality from Firearms, 1990-2016,” JAMA, 2018, 320 (8): 792-814, https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2698492;“How Many US Mass Shooting Have There Been in the 2023? BBC News, August 26, 2023, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081; Statistics Canada and CDC 2021; ONS (England and Wales), April 2021-March 2022; Australian Institute of Criminology, July 2021-June 2022.
The Prison Policy Initiative looked at the US incarceration rates and compared them to the founding NATO countries. Again, the United States can claim Number One status. The incarceration rate in the United States is 664 prisoners per 100,000 population. Next highest among NATO countries is the United Kingdom with 129 per 100,000, followed by Portugal (111 prisoners) and Canada (104).
Source: www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2021.html
The most recent estimate of American total population in 339 million. While the United States has the largest homeless population among OECD countries (580,000), it ranks 7th in per capita (1,707 per 100,000 persons). The United Kingdom, with a total population of 67.7 million has the second largest number of homeless person (365,000) in the OECD, but ranks 1st in homeless persons per capita (5,399 per 100,000).
Source: World Population Review data, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/homelessness-by-country
Let’s look at the Top Ten in all the international rankings.
WE’RE NUMBER 2 THROUGH 10 (good rankings)
Some 8.5 million locations in the US that lack access to broadband connections. Looking at their balance sheets, broadband companies like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, and Charter Communications are reluctant to provide access to rural communities, with small populations, and the need for large investments to provide service to them. The lack of such service became particularly evident during the COVID pandemic.
In June 2023, the White House announced that $42 billion would be divided up among the states and US territories, making high-speed Internet access available universally by 2030. The funds—the largest ever spent on the Internet in the US—came out of the $1 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, deemed the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment Program. Nineteen states received allocations of over $1 billion, with these states receiving the most funds: Alabama, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.
Along with the issue of access is that of broadband speed. In the most recent analysis, the United States ranked 9th in Megabits/second speed. Romania, Switzerland, Denmark, Thailand, and Chile led the list of having the fastest broad band speed.
Sources: Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw, “US to Spend $42 Billion to Make Internet Access Universal by 2030,” Reuters, June 26, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-detail-plans-42-billion-investment-us-internet-access-2023-06-26/. “Biden-Harris Administration Announces Over $40 Billion to Connect Everyone in America to Affordable, Reliable, High-Speed Internet,” White House, June 26, 2023, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/26/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-over-40-billion-to-connect-everyone-in-america-to-affordable-reliable-high-speed-internet/. Internet Speeds by Country, 2023,” World Population Review, n.d., https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/internet-speeds-by-country.
In 1990, some 37 percent of advanced semiconductor chips were manufactured in the United States; by 2020, the percentage had fallen dramatically to just 12 percent. Not only had production fallen, but the US lacked the capability to produce the most advanced chips in volume. Foreign competitors, particularly China, have invested heavily in this vital industry, fueled by government subsidies.
ASML in the Netherlands is the only manufacturer in the world making microchips that are essential to produce semiconductors. These microchips contain billions of transistors, making the chips faster, more powerful, and more energy efficient. ASML (for Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography) employs EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography to create the tiny circuitry found in computer chips, and its most recent tool, a High NA EUV, the size of a double-decker bus and costing $350 million, will help develop a new generation of even smaller and faster chips. The giant chip makers, TSMC in Taiwan, Samsung in South Korea, and Intel in the United States, rely on the ASML technology and products. Everything from smart technology found in automobiles and mobile phones, to augmented reality, and artificial intelligence rely on EUV technology. In 2024, an Intel facility near Hillsboro, Oregon, using High NA EUV technology, was under production and a major TSMC plant in Arizona was near completion.
One estimate finds that within the next decade, there will be a 53 percent increase in the demand for such semiconductor chips. For many policymakers in the US, these daunting facts showed how imperative it was to enact legislation boosting the US semiconductor industry.
In July 2022, through a rare bipartisan vote, Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act, designed to strengthen domestic semiconductor manufacturing, research and development, and tax credits for chip manufacturing. To protect domestic competitiveness in this field, the CHIPS Act provided safeguards to ensure that those companies receiving federal funds could not build advanced semiconductor production facilities in countries that present national security concerns. As the Biden White House noted, “America invented the semiconductor, but today produces about 10 percent of the world’s supply—and none of the most advanced chips. Instead, we rely on East Asia for 75 percent of global production. The CHIPS and Science Act will unlock hundreds of billions more in private sector semiconductor investment across the country, including production essential to national defense and critical sectors.”
As Reuters noted, “The CHIPS Act will have a broad impact, bolstering US leadership in wireless technology, and CHIPS funding will benefit not only US chip manufacturers, but also U.S. universities, K-12 STEM educational programs, and regional hubs among other advancements in innovation.”
Sources: “The ‘NA’ in the name refers to numerical aperture – a measure of the ability of an optical system to collect and focus light. And it’s called High NA EUV because we’ve increased the NA from 0.33 in our NXE systems to 0.55 in EXE systems. The higher NA is what gives the systems their better resolution.” In Christine Middleton, “Five Things You Should Know About High NA EUV Lithography,” ASML, January 24, 2024, https://www.asml.com/en/news/stories/2024/5-things-high-na-euv; “EUV Lithography Systems,” ASML, n.d., https://www.asml.com/en/products/euv-lithography-systems. “Semiconductor Manufacturing by Country,” World Population Review, https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/semiconductor-manufacturing-by-country. “CHIPS and Science Act Will Lower Costs, Create Jobs, Strengthen Supply Chains, and Counter China,” The White House, August 9, 2022, https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/08/09/fact-sheet-chips-and-science-act-will-lower-costs-create-jobs-strengthen-supply-chains-and-counter-china/. CHIPS is an acronym for “Creating Healthy Incentives to Produce Semiconductors.” Michelle Schulz, “Passage of the CHIPS and Science Act: What does This Mean for US Export Controls? Reuters, September 7, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/passage-chips-science-act-what-does-this-mean-us-export-controls-2022-09-07/.
The Global Innovation Index, co-founded in 2007 by Soumitra Dutta, dean of the Säid Business School at Oxford University, uses eighty indicators to track global innovation in over 130 economies. Dutta noted that “We are witnessing exponential progress in digital technologies and many fields of deep science. This is providing a boost to innovation across sectors and holds the hope of providing solutions to some of our world’s complex problems in climate, food, health and related challenges.” For the thirteenth year in a row, Switzerland was ranked as the most innovative of all the 130-plus economies surveyed; Sweden was ranked 2nd. The United States was ranked number 2 in 2022 but slipped to number 3 in 2023.
Sources: Global Innovation Index 2023: Switzerland, Sweden and the US Lead the Global Innovation Ranking,” Säid School of Business, Oxford University, September 27, 2023, https://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/news/global-innovation-index-2023-switzerland-sweden-and-us-lead-global-innovation-ranking; Global Innovation Index Database, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), 2023, https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo-pub-2000-2023-section1-en-gii-2023-at-a-glance-global-innovation-index-2023.pdf.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the largest technology trade association in North America, since 2018 has published a worldwide ranking of innovation. In its 2023 report, focused on 17 categories, encompassing 40 separate indicators. In these evaluations, the United States exhibited a decided leadership role. Looking at several categories, the US ranked number one in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, drones and advanced air mobility, and telehealth and telemedicine.
Source: “2023 CTA International Innovation Scorecard,” Consumer Technology Association, January 2023, https://cdn.cta.tech/cta/media/media/advocacy/scorecard/2023-cta-international-innovation-scorecard.pdf. Also earning plaudits from the CTA were Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the European Union
Note that most of these achievements are in the fields of technology and renewable energy.
But here are the Top Ten rankings that we should not be proud of:
While many of the wind farms are on land, others are planted in the sea, usually in shallow waters. Several of the barriers to wind farms along coastal waters, particularly in the United States, have been objections to the noise, the detriment to marine life, and the inevitable charges that windfarms just miles off the coast ruin the view. Most recently there have been concerted efforts in Ocean City and Cape May County, New Jersey, to block a ninety-eight-unit windmill farm, which would supply power to half a million homes. But some locals (and outside groups assisting them) are adamantly opposed to windfarms just miles off their coastline. As environmental journalist Kate Selig reported, if the wind farm opponents succeed, “they hope to create a template for derailing some thirty-one offshore wind projects in various stages of development and construction off the East Coast, a key part of President Biden’s plan to reduce greenhouse emissions that are driving global climate change.”
The US falls behind the leading wind power countries in offshore capacity. It currently has 42 MW of offshore capacity, with another 51,400 MW in the pipeline. China is the leader with 31,400 MW of offshore capacity and the United Kingdom is second, with 13,900 MW. One answer might be wind farms far out in the ocean, not anchored to the bottom of the sea, but floating.
Sources: Kate Selig, “The Future of East Coast Wind Power Could Ride On This Jersey Beach Town, Washington Post, August 8, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/08/08/offshore-wind-energy-east-coast/; “Offshore Wind: Market Report,” Clean Power, May 2023, https://cleanpower.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ACP_Offshore_Wind_Market_Report_2023_PUBLIC.pdf.
Together, India, China, and the United States contribute 42.6 percent of total emissions; the bottom 100 countries account for just 2.9 percent of emissions. Though India is a major GHG contributor, on a per capita basis this largest country in the world falls well below many industrialized countries. This ranking incorporates the twenty-seven nations of the European Union into one entity. The United States ranks second in both the total amount of GHG emissions and second in per capita emissions. Canada, ranking tenth in total emissions, ranks number one in greenhouse emissions per capita.
In 2022, China led the way with 12,795 Metric tons of CO2, ranking 6th per capita. The United States emitted less than half (6,001 Metric tons) of China’s emissions, but ranked 2nd per capita. India was third in total emissions (3,994), but 10th in per capita emissions. While Canada had the highest greenhouse emissions per capita, when looking at countries outside of the OECD, Saudi Arabia had a much higher per capita emissions than Canada.
Sources: “Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Government of Canada, https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/global-greenhouse-gas-emissions.html; World Resources Institute, https://www.wri.org/insights/interactive-chart-shows-changes-worlds-top-10-emitters.
Looking further, American policy leaders and lawmakers should be very uncomfortable with our world rankings:
WE’RE NUMBER 11-30:
During the first half of 2023, Tesla ranked as Number 1 (Model Y) and Number 2 (Model 3) in the worldwide EV market. The next four positions were held by the Chinese company BYD. Chinese companies held twelve of the twenty top spots in EV sales during this time. Chinese EV manufacturers are producing highly sophisticated, beautifully designed, and most importantly, affordable vehicles, that are rapidly filling markets throughout the world—except for the United States. In May 2024, the Biden administration imposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese EVs. President Biden justified the move to protect American jobs and market share, arguing that the Chinese “are flooding the market. It’s not competing—it’s cheating.” Indeed, the threat was real. Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley was “shocked” in a 2024 visit to China, seeing first-hand the extraordinary improvement in manufacturing, design, and features in Chinese EVs. Ford, which until very recently had been the second ranked EV producer (behind Tesla) in the United States, had been losing an estimated $36,000 on each of the 36,000 EVs it had delivered to its dealers during the third quarter of 2024. General Motors postponed plans for a $4 billion electric vehicle plant to be opened in Michigan.
The government of China has determined that the production of EVs would be a strategic investment, providing economic benefits as well as reducing air pollution and dependence on foreign oil. By 2022, the automobile company BYD had sold 1.85 million EVs, becoming the world’s second largest producer, behind Tesla; in 2023, BYD became the world leader in fully electric cars. Its best-selling EV, the Seagull, sells for around $11,000. Currently, the Chinese consumer can choose from almost 300 models; in addition, 80 percent of the top EVs sold in China are made by Chinese companies. Like Norway, China has offered a series of subsidies and tax breaks, both for the manufacturers of EVs and their customers, often making EVs cheaper than ICE vehicles. For BYD, the Chinese government had invested $2.6 billion from 2008 through 2022; the company was also given critical assistance from American investor Warren E. Buffet, who bought 10 percent of BYD in 2008, giving the company a critical infusion of cash. The central government also has invested in 760,000 public fast-charging stations and 1 million public slower-charging stations—more than the rest of the world combined. It also adopted a variation of the California zero-emissions mandate to eventually replace subsidies.
As journalist Joel Jaeger noted, “policies mandating 100 percent EV sales are the single most effective policy to drive the transition. Currently, sixteen countries including Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom, have some form of policy mandating 100 percent EV sales in 2035 or earlier.”
Sources: José Pontes, “World EV Sales Now 19% of World Sales!” CleanTechnica.com, August 2, 2023, https://cleantechnica.com/2023/08/02/world-ev-sales-now-19-of-world-auto-sales/; Mike Colias, “What Scared Ford’s CEO in China,” Wall Street Journal, September 14, 2024, https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/ford-china-ev-competition-farley-ceo-50ded461; Biden quote from Natalie Sherman, “Biden Hits Chinese Electric Cars and Solar Cells with Higher Tariffs,” BBC, May 14, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-69004520; David Shepherdson and Nathan Gomes, “Ford Cuts F-150 Lightning Production as EV Demand Softens,” Reuters, January 19, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ford-reduce-f-150-lightning-production-2024-01-19/#:~:text=Ford%20lost%20an%20estimated%20%2436%2C000,sales%20of%20gas%2Delectric%20hybrids; Keith Bradsher, “How China built BYD, Its Tesla Killer,” New York Times, February 10, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/12/business/byd-china-electric-vehicle.html; Joel Jaeger, “These Countries Are Adopting Electric Vehicles the Fastest,” World Resources Institute, September 14, 2023, https://www.wri.org/insights/countries-adopting-electric-vehicles-fastest#:~:text=The%20top%205%20countries%20with,%25)%2C%20according%20to%20our%20analysis.
Topping the list of EV adoptions is Norway, which in 2022 saw 87.8 percent of its new automobiles as EVs; in 2013, that figure was just 6.1 percent. Iceland is 2nd, with 56.1 percent new car adoptions (1.3 percent in 2013); Sweden is tied for 2nd with 56.1 percent adoption (0.7 percent in 2013); Denmark is 4th, with 38.6 percent adoption (0.3 in 2013), and Finland is 5th, with 37.5 percent adoption (none in 2013).
The United States comes in 21st place, with 7.7 percent EV adoption in 2022, with a 0.16 percent adoption in 2013.
But with the second Trump administration, electric vehicles were no longer a priority. Trump, two months before taking office for his second term, vowed to get rid of the $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases. His close adviser, Elon Musk, heartily agreed. “Take away the subsidies, it will only help Tesla,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns. The elimination of the tax credit would most likely hurt General Motors, Ford, Rivian, and Stellantis—the weakest American rivals to Tesla. On January 20, 2025, his first day in office, Trump cancelled the EV tax credit. Edmunds.com, an automobile purchasing guide, warned that “the potential elimination of the federal tax credit for electric vehicles by the Trump administration—without another form of incentive to replace it—could derail the trajectory of EV sales in the United States.”
Sources: Executive Order, “Unleashing American Energy,” White House, January 20, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy; /Kate Gibson, “Trump’s Win Could Sharply Raise the Cost of Electric Vehicles. Here’s Why,” CBS News, November 15,2024, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-elon-musk-donald-trump-ev-tax-credit/.
The US received high marks in terms of road connectivity, ranking Number One in road connectivity, according to a survey conducted by the World Atlas. Altogether, there are 4.2 million miles of highway in the US, including Hawaii and Alaska. Just 1 percent of the road network is made up of the Interstate Highway system; but that 1 percent carries 25 percent of all auto and truck traffic. Along with the Interstate system are 175,000 miles of major roadways, maintained by both the federal government and state governments. About 77 percent of the American roadway is maintained by local governments and 19 percent is maintained by state governments.
The World Economic Forum, through its Executive Opinion Survey, asked 14,000 business leaders in 144 countries to rate the quality of their country’s road system. Just one question was asked: rate the roads on a scale of 1 (underdeveloped) to 7 (extensive and efficient by international standards). In the most recent World Economic Forum survey, the road quality in the US was given a score of 5.5 (out of 7), and the US ranked 17th in the world in quality of its roads. One estimate was that 200,000 miles of major highways were in mediocre condition and in need of critical repair and that nearly 8 percent of bridges were structurally deficient.
Ranking highest in road quality were Singapore, Netherlands, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Japan, and Austria.
Sources: “Top 10 Countries with the Best Road Connectivity,” World Atlas, n.d., https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/top-10-countries-with-the-best-road-connectivity.html#:~:text=Road%20Network%20In%20The%20United,one%2Dquarter%20of%20the%20traffic. GlobalEconomy.com, https://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/roads_quality/; data from World Economic Forum.
It gets worse:
WE’RE NUMBER 31-50:
In 1988, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) created a research center to support its advocacy of children worldwide. Its Office of Research-Innocenti, based in Florence, Italy, has compiled annual Report Cards on the status of children and their well-being in advanced countries.
For the Sixteenth Report Card (2020), out of thirty-eight countries examined, the United States came in thirty-sixth, ahead of only Bulgaria and Chile. Using data from the OECD, the World Bank, Global Burden of Disease Study, World Health Organization, PISA, and other data measurements, the Report Card focuses on three overall dimensions: mental well-being (both positive and negative aspects of a child’s mental well-being—life satisfaction and suicide rates); physical health (rates of overweight and child mortality); and skills (academic proficiency and social skills, such as making friends easily).
Source: “Worlds of Influence: Understand What Shapes Child Well-Being in Rich Countries,” Innocenti Report Card 16, UNICEF, 2020; written by Anna Gromada, Gwyther Rees, and Yekaterina Chzhen, https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/Report-Card-16-Worlds-of-Influence-child-wellbeing.pdf.
During the pandemic years, the percentage of child poverty declined in the United States and was greatly assisted by the Child Tax Credit. From July through December 2021, the Internal Revenue Service paid Child Tax Credits worth $250 per child (age 6 to 17) and up to $300 per child under the age of 6; a total of 61 million children in 36 million households were assisted. Thus, 3 million children were kept out of poverty in July 2021, climbing up to 3.7 million in December. Thanks to the Child Tax Credit, the poverty rate in 2021 fell to its lowest level ever recorded by the US Census Bureau. But there was a looming expiration date on this successful program.
The expanded Child Tax Credit was scheduled to be continued in the Biden administration’s Build Back Better legislation. The bill passed in the House of Representatives in November 2021, but was blocked in the Senate by the refusal of Democrat Joe Manchin III to agree. Thus, the Child Tax Credit was not renewed. The results were immediate. Child poverty has increased dramatically from 12.1 percent in December 2021 to 17.0 percent in January 2022. Researchers from the Columbia University Center for Poverty and Social Policy note that 3.7 million more children were in poverty in early 2022 due to the ending of the monthly tax credits, and Latino and Black children were hit the hardest. Then came the official numbers from the US Census Bureau: child poverty spiked in 2022, averaging 12.4 percent, up from 5.2 percent in the previous year. “By far this is the largest annual increase in US history for both children and the overall population in terms of poverty, going back to 1967,” said Zachary Parolin at the Columbia University Center for Poverty and Social Policy. Altogether, five million children were affected by the end of the tax credits.
The OECD calculates that the percentage of children living in poverty for Finland is 2.4 percent. Ranking second is Denmark (4.8 percent), third is Iceland (5.4 percent), fourth is Slovenia (5.6 percent), and fifth is the Czech Republic (7.1 percent). The United States ranks 31st with18.8 percent of children living in poverty.
Sources: Zachary Parolin, Sophie Collyer, and Megan A. Curran, “Absence of Monthly Child Tax Credit Leads to 3.7 Million More Children in Poverty in January 2022.” Poverty and Social Policy Brief Vol 6., no. 2. Center on Poverty and Social Policy, Columbia University (February 17, 2022), www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/publication/monthly-poverty-january-2022; Kyle Swenson and Amy Goldstein, “US Poverty Spiked in 2022, Reversing Gains, Census Bureau Data Shows,” Washington Post, September 12, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/09/12/us-poverty-rate-census-uninsured-2022/; “Proportion of Children Living in Poverty in the OECD Countries, 2020, Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/264424/child-poverty-in-oecd-countries/; OECD database.
The Institute for Women’s Policy Research through its Status of Women in the States analysis shows that the persistent pay inequality is “far-reaching: if women in the United States received equal pay with comparable men, poverty for working women would be reduced by half and the U.S. economy would have added $482 billion (equivalent to 2.8 percent of 2014 GDP) to its economy.” Further, if working women were paid at the same comparable rate as men, the poverty rate among all working women would fall from 8.2 percent to 4.0 percent.
In looking at the wage gender gap in 2022, the OECD found that the United States ranked 38th among OECD and selected other countries. The country with the least wage gap is Belgium; for men earning $100.00, women earn $98.83. The average for twenty-seven countries in the European Union is this: men earn $100.00, women earn $89.37. The United States figures are far lower: men earn $100.00 and women earn $83.14.
Sources: “The Economic Impact of Equal Pay by State,” Status of Women in the States, http://statusofwomendata.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/SWS-Equal-Pay-and-Poverty_final.pdf; “Gender Wage Gap,” OECD, https://data.oecd.org/earnwage/gender-wage-gap.htm. The OECD defines the gender gap as “The difference between median earnings of men and women relative to median earnings of men.”
WE’RE NUMBER 51-100:
Amnesty International reports that altogether, 108 countries had completely abolished the death penalty by the end of 2021; a total of 144 countries have abolished it in practice (that is, no executions in the past ten years). Fifty-five countries, including the United States, retain the death penalty. At the end of 2021, there are, however, some 28,670 persons who have been sentenced to death. Iraq has the highest number, around 8,000; the United States has 2,382 persons on death row.
Source: “Death Penalty 2021: Facts and Figure,” Amnesty International, May 24, 2022, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/05/death-penalty-2021-facts-and-figures/.
In the US Senate and the House of Representatives, there has been a slow, but steady increase in the number of women serving. In the 119th Congress (2025-2027), there are 125 women (29 percent) in the House of Representatives and 26 women (26 percent) in the Senate. (In addition, there are 4 non-voting women delegates in the House). In 2022, there are 562 women serving in state senates (28.5 percent) and 1,738 women in state lower chambers (32.1 percent). About two-thirds of all women serving are Democrats.
Throughout the world at the beginning of 2025, the Inter-Parliamentary Union found that 26.1 percent of legislators were women. Thus, the American representation could only be characterized as “near average,” ranking 77th in the world. In 2022, the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Norway) had the highest average of women lawmakers, at 41.4 percent. The Americas (North and South) were next with 21.8 percent, followed by Europe (minus the Nordic countries) at 19.1 percent; Asian countries were next with 17.4 percent, Sub-Saharan Africa with 17.2 percent, Pacific Islands with 13.4 percent, and Arab states with 9.6 percent.
Sources: Inter-Parliamentary Union, “Monthly Ranking of Women in National Parliaments,” (February 2025, https://data.ipu.org/women-ranking/?date_month=1&date_year=2025); “More Women in Parliament and More Countries with Gender Parity,” Inter-Parliamentary Union, March 3, 2022, https://www.ipu.org/news/press-releases/2022-03/new-ipu-report-more-women-in-parliament-and-more-countries-with-gender-parity
Since 2005, the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) has been grading the climate mitigation performances of sixty countries and the European Union. Germanwatch, NewClimate Institute, and the Climate Action Network developed this independent ranking, drawing on the advice of 450 climate and policy experts, measuring the performance of these countries, which emit some 92 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. The CCPI considers four main factors: greenhouse gas emissions (40 percent of overall score), renewable energy (20 percent), energy use (20 percent), and climate policy (20 percent). The CCPI ranking board decided to leave the first three positions blank on the 2023 ranking, noting that no country had performed well enough to be considered in the highest ranking.
The United States ranked 52nd out of 60 countries. Why is the US so embarrassing low on this ranking? The CCPI recognized the targets and policies for climate action announced by the Biden administration, citing the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, with its $21 billion on environmental projects, $7.5 billion for electric vehicles, and $65 billion for improving the power infrastructure and adjustments to renewable energy. It also acknowledges the Biden administration’s net-zero emissions target for 2050 and a 2030 goal of cutting 2005-level greenhouse gases by 50-52 percent. The impact of the Inflation Reduction Act, with its historic emphasis on climate change mitigation, is not factored into this analysis.
The CCPI report concludes that its country experts “welcome the US government’s new commitments. They note the obstructing role the Republican opposition plays in climate politics. However, the experts criticize that some policies lack a mandatory character, and implementation will not be quick enough. The main shortcoming described is that the US will not halt domestic fossil fuel extraction, and there are still fossil fuel subsidies in place.” But the US ranking on the CCPI listing has been worse: last time it was measured, in 2021, the United States sat at 55th place. With a new Trump presidential term, America’s place in the CCPI rankings will surely suffer.
Sources: Our World in Data,
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-per-capita-vs-renewable-electricity?tab=table and Global Carbon Project, https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/. Rachel Hellman, “US Lags in Latest Climate Protection Rankings,” US News, February 28, 2022, https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2022-02-28/denmark-shines-u-s-lags-in-latest-climate-protection-rankings. Climate Change Performance Index 2023, https://ccpi.org/ranking/ (accessed October 14, 2023).
How Did They Do It? Carbon Pricing and Cap-and-Trade in the European Union.
How Did They Do It? Turning Carbon Dioxide into Stone in Iceland