The Measure of America

The Columbia University Press blog notes the release of the study "The Measure of America: American Human Development Report 2008-2009". Here are a few findings.

• The U.S. ranks #24 among the 30 most affluent countries in life expectancy - yet spends more on health care than any other nation.
• The top 1 percent of U.S. households possesses a full third of America’s wealth.
• Nearly one in five American children lives in poverty, with more than one in thirteen living in extreme poverty.
• The U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s people - but 24 percent of the world’s prisoners.
• The U.S. ranks forty-second in global life expectancy and first among the world’s twenty-five richest countries in the percentage of children living in poverty.

Via Maud Newton