China vs United States: A Visual Comparison
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As we discussed in yesterday’s post, whether the United States and China like it or not, the economic futures of both countries are intertwined. Everyone knows that China’s got more people and that its importance as an economic superpower has escalated in recent years. What you might not understand is how the differences between our countries, in economic philosophy, in population, in geography and in how the military is built and paid for ultimately play into the entire economic relationship.
For many China remains something of a mystery. In order to help compare and contrast the economic differences, we have simplified the data from the CIA World Factbook. For the exact numbers in any category, check here.
For more personal finance visualizations see: WallStats.com
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« Previous 1 2Here is a case of Plato’s Cave and people chasing shadows. There is no author, no proper citation, etc. It fails to provide any formulas used to create the graphs. But lots of people like the odd graphing and think its cool.
Here is a case of someone making somewhat obscure references to make himself look smarter while not actually having read the article.
The information is from the CIA world fact book as stated in the text. Exact numbers can be found there.
The “formula” used to make the graphs is simply to look at relative sizes of the numbers. There is no scale needed because every category is treated as being independent.
I hate dumbasses who think they are smart.
Nice. but its more interesting to read the article
Ok, THIS is the problem with the stats:
The CIA factbook has to take the Chinese government at its word on many things. The reported AIDS rate comes to mind. Are we forgetting SARS people? The US still has the most transparency, which should tell you something about China.
well, i dont think China has less rate of unemployment lol
@John
It seems like you’re having a bad day.
Chill out!
Go and create something instead of pissing on a good attempt at making a relative comparison of China and the US.
The bad part about a democracy and the internet is that any fool can have a vote and an email account.
Excellent visual. This really excels at its stated purpose. As a US citizen living in China since 2005I would like to share one thing I have noticed. Sadly there is seems to be a lot of mistrust between our two nations. The Chinese people and the ruling Party are not one and the same.
Don’t worry, @Richard, no Chinese here that I know are interested in taking you or our country over. On the contrary, ordinary Chinese share a desire with you to create a better life for their children than what they had. Despite the obvious short comings of a totalitarian govt, people here still have hope that maybe one day they can enjoy the same quality of life and freedom you and have enjoyed.
We could certainly learn more from each other. I recommend taking a trip here to really get a feel for the place and it’s people.
Very nice graphic that was well designed and executed. It just lacks a dollar amount atop each column to give all the info in one graphic.
The technique is really great – colors pop, it reads and flows well, arrows and arrowheads are the right size and thickness to be functional yet unobtrusive. Not that the key to the graphic is in the font color of the countries at the top. (Duh, I know)
Well done, wallstats.com!
How about putting some comments on there that supporting your fellow Americans instead of Chinese is “AS RACIST AS HELL”. That would satisfy the liberals that supporting China is much more important than supporting your own country.
It seems such a shame that we still look to expand on difference between given nations instead of seeking areas of commonality. we’re all here, on one planet, can we get it all together before we really “muck it up”.
wow! Nice colours dude! Should be reversed given all the killing Americans are doing for the joos!
People will believe ANYTHING they see without researching it for themselves.
I love mint.com. You are fantastic
A+ for visualizations of data.
Nice representation, Its time US wakes up and spend on useful products instead of Nuclear Bombs.
The Military information is all virtually irrelevant:
1) nothing is said about readiness, 2) nothing is said of experience of the forces, 3) nothing is said about the sophistication of the forces and their ability to inter-operate, 4) nothing is said of the innovation capabilities of the forces — Note all of the above favor the US in a massive way — I would put up the two newest 2 US carrier battle groups + 10 extra Aegis Destroyers + the 3 Seawolves and 4 Virginias against the entire Chinese Navy….Similarly give me 3 AWACS some tankers and 4 wings of F-22’s and you can have the entire Chinese Air Force…. At this point…even non-nuclear-wise.. there is no comparison.. US Military is an unqualified superior force to the Chinese
Yeah, new son of a *beep*, what you said is so “true”. Given that you guys have so many powerful weapons, how come you guys still couldn’t win the Korean war? How come you guys also failed Vietnamese war as well? No to mention that a huge empire like US, throwed billions of dollars on small countries like Iraq and Afghan, and still couldn’t have a decent final victory against a bunch of guerilla.
Maybe you are right, the US military muscle is unqualified superior, but judging by its performance, I’d say US military brain is just a joke.
Having a fancy graph is nice but it still explains nothing. There are economic theory that may give some explanation to what we see here. As you had notices, U.S. has a better population growth rate, more usable lands, and more coast lines. Basically U.S. has a better real estate for economic growth and yet China’s economic growth rate seems like it will catch up to the U.S.
To explain understand this, just think of both economy are merging. This conversion happens when both country trades. Same thing happened with Germany after WWII. Their economy rebuild from ashes into a world class economy in a short period of time. When Japan was rebuilding after WWII their are people who sound the alarms saying Japans unprecedented growth rate will surpass America and it never happen. The same will happen with China once the merge is over.
Cool: Are you a C&C Generals player, too?
hey guys, don’t be afraid of communist china.
i am chinese, and i can assure you that china is no way a rival to usa until the communist system is gone.
communism is eroding the country and there is no cure.
help us kill the communism and a free china will benifit the whole world.
believe me why i say this, communism is evil, and you have the responsibility to fight against them.
against the system, but for the people
chinese people will always be friendly
Wow man, interesting read.
You need some scales brah. And how about some formulas to back up the data. The flow chart setup is confusing and doesn’t allow me to compare data.
You’re a good designer, but I’d recommend brushing up on the visual system and how it processes chart data. Check out the work of Stephen Few and William Cleveland from more pointers on the perception of graphics.
This is a good visual comparison and serves a casual reader well. No doubt China is a rising economic power. But I would also like to see the “standard of living” comparison? Further more, is anyone planning to move to China to pursue the “Chinese Dream”?
Useless without actual numbers.
Jill,
Let me know how you like the commune and its journalism and health care systems. Jill, you assume a lot; suspect you have never taken a straight look at fascism, dictatorship or a military-led socialist regime. Ruthless killings my dear…you seem to think INTENTIONAL, random killings of private citizens (yes children) to frighten and control are justifiable…Kick the KoolAid.
Clever, and attractively done.
Seems a bit like propaganda because you leave quite a bit out.
How about personal freedoms and governmental spying on it’s people. I know the US has fallen short recently on this however not even close to the level of the PRC.
Obviously the author of this article want’s to stir something up or get people worried with military stats.
If China where to attack the US it would have to take a navy across the pacific causing a huge naval war. Then if China’s army were to reach the shores of the US, China would have to face the people and military of the US, all armed because of our second amendment rights here in the US. There happens to be more guns than people in the US and most of us love this land, not our leaders but our loved ones, and would die for it.
If the US attacked China then the US military would get what it deserved. The US would find itself in a similar situation.
In chess this is called a stalemate neither side wins, so it is pointless to start a silly war and spread propaganda.
Good comparison between China and America. Two great countries, one communist and the other…..communist.
So the source is CIA ? hahaha funny
Nice presentation …
Manish
Interesting representation. Highly visual, but where are the numbers? You have 2 vertical bars being compared to each other, but without numbers or any reference to what they really mean, it’s just visual eye candy.
DIGG IT! Nice visualization!!!
Interesting- USA does more with less.
I stopped at Economic Freedom..damn that’s depressing. Freedom to walk out my door and buy.
I’m going to go listen to Ren & Stimpy’s ‘happy happy joy joy’
It was interesting comparing the results on this chart but I have to agree with Choose Freedom’s comment about the economic freedom index.
to all begging for numbers: numbers are for reports. This is an analysis, comparing two things. When comparing you don’t need numbers, you just need scale. US is 2x of China. US is 1/3 of China, etc. Why do you need the numbers for this comparison? I do agree that a mouse over with definition of each metric would be nice.
This scares me a bit.
The graphs didn’t mention world political influence difference.
I doubt on the nukes possession illustration. It seems a 5th column tactic attempt of CIA.
It is very funny or not mention it is very wired that you American guys start to compare US with China, I remember so much years you think that you have all the world and you didn’t ever look at China…and one day you wake up and you decide that for all the bad situations that Great US have gone through last years was a moron ex-president (that you have elected twice!) and now you have elected a new one to say “sorry” for the before actions, actions that have taken not from presidents but from dark people with “dark policies” “behind the scene” which this also means that nothing will change and today even if US thinks “yes it can”
Anyway, as sitting in front of monitors and read some charts it’s away to far from the real truth, the real truth that I discovered by my self visiting China before 10 months and stayed there for 1 month is: you can’t imagine what Big Growth China has in all areas…it can’t be described by words…
PS1: Thank you all, I love US, I wish US loved all the world too
PS2: Ironic? History always repeating right? Greece was sometime a great nation and civilization…now Greece has only great sea and sun to sell, you are all invited
China will overtake USA in 10 years.
nice statistics but lack sense bcos no figures,to us economist it’s useless.you people your so selfish thing about yourself where exactly do you get your rawmaterials and market?AFRICA you should honour africa for your growth
So what’s the conclusion? The US will do something to limit the speed of development of China, or will be more likely to cooperate with China?
Chart speaks more than 1000 words, wonderful presentation. Thank you. Is there a similar comparison on US/Australia?
-Doji
China will soon announce that it has 2 trillion dollars that it doesn’t know what to do with, and the US is drowning under debt and the administration is almost begging the Chinese to buy bonds.
The Chinese will probably buy bonds but will demand a much higher rate of interest.
The chart said little to me and less than I’ve written above.
Obama was at -8 on Rasmussen yesterday and is intent on burying the country under debt.
Mike
wow..I do not believe that comparator works, however people believe China as far will catch up the similar growth in short time will be a most powerful country at least at the end of this century
history of the world show us how some powerful countries collapse then replaced with the others
i think they are have nothing compare between china and US,china is developing country,US is developed country,they are have different basis,
I agree with Ben. You can’t make a meanful comparson between a developed economy with established makets and a developing country that is just starting to find it’s place in the world. One big issue almost everyone overlooks is China’s growing energy need to sustain its growth. Without some major technological breakthoughs, China will not be able to sustain its growth rate to catch the US.
I think you will find that China has realised the need for investment in new energy technology and have invested and encouraged investment in renewables with unprecedented verve compared to many Western nations who have to make sure the NIMBY’s (Not In My Back Yard voters) are satisfied before they can go ahead with anything a little bit extreme. Sorry folks the country needs this land for a new energy production facility so you have to move to a nearby city into up to date housing instead of your subsistence living you currently endure.
more than 1000 words, wonderful presentation.
what a nice work : ]
i am a Univ. student in Korea.
i wanna use ur img to my presentation.
it is good to see and explain.
well i think china in on the line to be a super power.it’s good for the world as it creates equilibrium and america will stop harassing other countries.chinese people are in general worker bees not like the coming up generations in america who lack energy.americans think they are the best but hell why they think china is a prison or something it’s a large country as large as the usa and has beautiful nature and history not like the usa .the usa is a fucking country they attack whenever they like the psychokillers how about irak vietnam afghanistan and now iran …
I like this visual explaination very much