We "know" that the United States is a large country and a large economy. We "know" we have a big footprint and a big effect upon the world. It's hard to appreciate just how big "big" is but leaving the country for a while helps.
I joke that "everthing is bigger in America" and in some ways it is literally true. The most innocuous and silly things are bigger. Toilet paper rolls. Marshmallows (and I'm not even talking about those gigantic ones that have come out in the last year). Pizzas.
But how much bigger is America and how big is our effect, especially the effect of our economy?
Think of some of the major countries in the world. France. Canada. Brazil. Sweden. Mexico. Russia. Australia. One of the measurements of a countries economic size/heft is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). How do the GDPs of these countries stack up against the US?
France's GDP is roughly the equivalent of...California
Canada's GDP? Texas
Brazil = New York State
Sweden = North Carolia
Norway = Minnesota, which is appropriate somehow, given how many Norwegians there are in Minnesota :)
Mexico = Illinois
Russia = New Jersey (yeah, I get the irony in that too)
And my new favorite address, Australia? Ohio.
How about let's look at it from another angle? Even our smallest and least populated states/jurisdictions have more oomph than you might imagine.
Wyoming: Uzbekistan
Rhode Island: Vietnam
Delaware: Romania
West Virginia: Algeria
Mississippi: Chile
And my actual true home, Washington DC: New Zealand. Yes, even little bitty DC, not even 100 square miles, has an GDP equivalent to all of New Zealand.
Even those states that are traditionally considered "the least among us" have the GDP of an entire nation.
That's how big we are. No wonder everyone else looks at us with...awe, fear, respect, caution, and a host of other reactions.
(I'm getting this information from the Strange Maps website.)
And my new favorite address, Australia? Ohio.
ReplyDeleteWow, I would have never thought that - I suspected Australia's GDP to be much larger. (Or perhaps Ohio's much smaller.)
I just keep waiting to hear that the USA is the equivalent of a half-block of Beijing...
They have the GDP of Ohio and their populations is right between New York and Texas. Imagine the continental US populated only by the residents of NY state.
ReplyDelete