India vs the US: A Visual Comparison

Share This
Since its shift from socialist economic policies in the early Nineties to a free-market economy, India has experienced a massive economic boom and foreign trade is a key part of its economic policy. India is in many ways a nation of paradoxes. It is simultaneously one of the worlds fastest growing economies and the nation with the largest concentration of people living below the poverty line. India’s history, geography, religious and ethnic makeup, and culture are vastly different to the US and yet the two countries maintain a close relationship. Our infographic is designed to provide an at-a-glance view of the most important economic dimensions of the US and India and a few less important but fun ones too. Hence the lack of scale or numbers. In order to help compare and contrast the economic differences, we have simplified the data from the CIA World Factbook and Nationmaster.com . For the exact numbers in any category, check here and here.
For more personal finance visualizations see: WallStats.com
For more personal finance visualizations see: WallStats.com
Related Videos
Popular Articles





96 Comments so far
leave a comment-
Krishna Botipatlay 885 days ago
12 likes
-
Jeff Seiman 884 days ago
6 likes
-
Bon Bon 884 days ago
4 likes
-
Mohandas 884 days ago
9 likes
-
David Bonniview 884 days ago
8 likes
-
Troll 884 days ago
6 likes
-
chander 884 days ago
like
-
jae_em 884 days ago
2 likes
-
Ahmed 884 days ago
7 likes
-
Brandon 884 days ago
1 like
-
yaka 884 days ago
1 like
-
arnold 884 days ago
7 likes
-
me 883 days ago
1 like
-
Todd Paulson 884 days ago
2 likes
-
chander 884 days ago
1 like
-
chander 884 days ago
2 likes
-
Ahmed 884 days ago
2 likes
-
Todd Paulson 884 days ago
2 likes
-
Wyatt 884 days ago
4 likes
-
Randall Staggers 878 days ago
like
-
Ephraim Renfro 884 days ago
11 likes
-
Josh 881 days ago
1 like
-
Randall Staggers 878 days ago
1 like
-
sman 884 days ago
like
-
DN 878 days ago
8 likes
-
Bruce 884 days ago
6 likes
-
livinjean 884 days ago
7 likes
-
Randall Staggers 878 days ago
like
-
David@DINKS Finance 884 days ago
1 like
-
Varun 884 days ago
4 likes
-
jas 884 days ago
1 like
-
Commentor 884 days ago
2 likes
-
Vedas 884 days ago
3 likes
-
Gurmander Singh Kohli 883 days ago
6 likes
-
Dev 877 days ago
1 like
-
Alan 884 days ago
8 likes
-
Gurmander Singh Kohli 883 days ago
2 likes
-
Sean 881 days ago
1 like
-
Emperor 880 days ago
like
-
Dave T 884 days ago
2 likes
-
Arnab 880 days ago
like
-
mayank 871 days ago
1 like
-
SageAnt 884 days ago
2 likes
-
Brent Bordelon 884 days ago
3 likes
-
Robert 884 days ago
1 like
-
Ankash 884 days ago
like
-
Harshad Joshi 884 days ago
5 likes
-
David Bonniview 881 days ago
3 likes
-
GDR 878 days ago
like
-
Jijo 883 days ago
1 like
-
Piyush Savalia 883 days ago
2 likes
-
David Bonniview 881 days ago
3 likes
-
Truly 883 days ago
1 like
-
David@DINKS Finance 881 days ago
2 likes
-
upvan 882 days ago
like
-
Krishna Kota 881 days ago
like
-
Lim 881 days ago
3 likes
-
Anurag Bansal 881 days ago
like
-
Baap 881 days ago
7 likes
-
Jigna Rathod 878 days ago
like
-
Will 881 days ago
like
-
Arjun 880 days ago
1 like
-
Sesh Murthy 880 days ago
like
-
andy 880 days ago
3 likes
-
Anand 873 days ago
2 likes
-
sunny 880 days ago
like
-
Ritesh 879 days ago
like
-
Arnab Sen 879 days ago
3 likes
-
AA 872 days ago
2 likes
-
hosted virtual desktop 879 days ago
1 like
-
Ash 878 days ago
like
-
Srini 877 days ago
like
-
big cheese 877 days ago
2 likes
-
Sudhakar R 877 days ago
like
-
rajasekhar 877 days ago
2 likes
-
rajasekhar 877 days ago
like
-
Shyam 875 days ago
like
-
Deepak 873 days ago
3 likes
-
amod 873 days ago
like
-
Drew 870 days ago
1 like
1 2 Next »I note that in the last section there are bar charts for both ‘Total Catholics’ as well as ‘Total Muslims’ but no section for ‘Total Hindus’ or some other religion. I find that odd. I don’t think there is any positive reason they would have a section for the amount of Muslims in India versus any other religion.
I don’t think showing a % of Hinus would prove anything. The number in the US is miniscule. India’s second largest religion is muslim. Quit being defensive.
This is a US-centric visualization, Krishna. Hindus do not exist outside of India, hence they are not a significant statistic. Also, why are we talking about religion – it is so last millenium.
Atheism, agnosticism, or Tom-Cruise-Scientology for the win.
you are a fucking moron, hinduism is NOT an important religion.
Completely agreed with Krishna. Yes, there are many muslims in India, but there are way more Hindus there. The number of muslims is only an issue if you consider it to be. Ultimately, India is a multi-ethnic, multi-religion country, but don’t harp on Krishna for being defensive against number of Hindus. The data as provided makes it appear that India is a muslim country which it very definitely is NOT.
– David
Perhaps it’s because Catholics and Muslims are the most prone to be terrorists?
christians terrorists?????
beats me pal……
Chander, no need to be ignorant. They’re the ones who stand outside of abortion clinics who bomb & murder.
Yeah, you know. Going to other countries and spreading democracy, etc.
Hm, the free market creates growth … who would have thunk. The US seems to want to move away from that…
you do realize that attendance is spelled “attendAnce”, right?
there are some pretty nice comparisons, only marred by this one error.
heey! theres no ‘total pot smoking % ‘ comparison
~“““
enjoy ur J !
haahahahha weeed % wud b way higher in india iuno bout smoking it buh like the pakoras and stuff !! ahahah mad nuts =]
Are you suggesting there is something negative about Muslims?
not just “something” but a whole lotta things are negative about this religion of “peace” (responsible for some 250 million killings in last 1400 years)
the religion of peace (islam) only preaches hatred and killing of the infiels.
Let’s get our facts now buddy ol’ pal. Read a book or two, might help you in the long run.
The % Hindus would be a ridiculous comparison. In India, it would be above 75% obviously. In America, much less. A more rare and perhaps valuable statistic would be Muslim population.
Would it hurt to put numbers in the axis so you can get an idea of what the values mean?
You don’t need numbers. One can easily figure out the percentages which is more relevant the actual numbers.
I note that in the last section there are charts for both ‘Total Roller Coasters’ as well as ‘Miss Universe Wins’ but no section for ‘Ping Pong Champions’ or some other random thing nobody cares about. I find that odd. I don’t think there is any positive reason they would have a section for the amount of Roller Coasters in India versus any other thing that doesn’t matter at all. The lack of a ‘Ping Pong Champions’ category clearly demonstrates the author’s inherent racism towards the Chinese.
You sir are hilarious
Perhaps there are no ping pong champ in India.
I suspect that Hindus are not as important since most readers in the US are Christians and are afraid of Muslims. Those 2 relevant ones are covered. Most Americans when listing major religions will skip Hinduism and go to Buddhism straight.
Well, The only reason for Hindus just being in India is because they do not believe in converting (forcefully or otherwise) other innocent people in either ‘Islam’ or ‘Christianity’. Muslims did it coming from north & gulf & mass converted a big population of Indians and now the same is done by christians everyday.
As said by somebody, Hinduism is a way of life based on equality & care unlike the Islam & Christian cults. Really feel bad for these 2 ‘tribes’.
Take a look at Government Spending! That tells the tale. The US is burdened with MASSIVE government debt and spending.
Not sure how this was compared but terrorism fatalities look way off. India has been on the receiving end from 1989 and sadly had lost thousands of lives since then.
Take out the Federal Building bombing and 9/11 and they would likely be more close.
Well, I think we all know this whether most are willing to recognize it or not – India has positioned itself beautifuly to be (if not already) one of the leading economic powerhouses of our world.
Is this for 1 year?Otherwise there is a a grave error in source.
‘Coz Terrorism Fatalities is way way way way more in India than in US.
What some 2800 people dies in US.India’s been fighting it for 30 years now
2 PM’s assassinated even.
alot of irrelevent info in this. ‘miss universe winners’ etc.. kinda stupid.
India adopted a “Free Market” economy? There are no such things as free markets. The very use of the term makes the whole article suspect.
Krishna Botipatlay, you’re such a unbeliever. Hinduism is a way of life not a religion.
This is in support of the comment by Vedas. We all should have a way of life… call it religion or give it any label. Unfortunaltely over the year far too may people have been killed in the name of “religion” … I am a “Sikh” a student all my life and I am more comfortable with your thought of “Hinduism” being a way of Life and not a religion. It is a very peace advocating way of life. I am very proud to share my way of Life with the Hindu way of Life… ideally all ways of “Life” lead to one destination and that is to be “One” with God.
@Vedas
Hinduism isn’t a religion because it doesn’t try to bind it’s followers together. Most religions try the extreme to bind people together. In actuality Hinduism loosely tries to bind us together, but at large it tries to make everyone independent. That is why we Hindus don’t have Sunday mass, we go to temple when we please, pray, and leave, and with little interaction with other patrons. In society we don’t wear a yamaka, turban, or shukr, we don’t pray 6 times a day, etc.
This line I heard, said it best… Hindus are like the sand on a beach, they don’t stick together.
By being independent through religion, while in society we Hindus get our grouping through our caste. Hinduism’s independence is there so it could revolve around the caste system. Which is a form of governing society.
The statement that it is a way of life, is misleading. All religions are a way of life.
I enjoyed looking at the pretty bars till I saw the terrorism fatalities. No way fatalities in US are more than that in India. If this statistics came from CIA, I guess CIA needs to outsource its operation.
The bars indicate that there have been more fatalities in India connected to terrorism.
Gurmander, I think you’re confused… the white bar on the right is much larger than the red Indian bar on the left.
Truly Said Alan.
Fatality rate is definitely high in India than US.
Even a kid in India would know about it.
The disparity in paid maternity leave is surprising, I thought India would have has less developed socialist benefits but not in this case.
I know where that graph comes from, when the housemaid leaves and returns after a year to collect her “puja bonus”
@Arnab
That’s a ridiculous and immature statement.
Although I dont believe that those figures are true but connecting maternity leave with religious practices just shows how narrow minded you are.
Is english speakers a percentage – and what exactly is “english”? by some accounts there are more english speakers in India (350M) then people in the US, however it’s whats called Hinglish (a misnomer) which is actually the local flavor of english, just like “American English” in its various forms is the local flavor of the queens tongue
Exactly. Since there are no scale indicators of any kind, differences can be made to look as small or as large as the author wishes. In other words, these graphics only indicate MOST and LEAST – pretty, but not very useful.
Are the units in pixels or just completely made up?
Good comparison, Atleast for people who don’t check the CIA fact profile.
If there were coloumns like – losers, fail, bad english speakers, drug abusers, mafias, cartels, share market looters, racial biasing, expensive and unaffordable lifestyle, obesity etc, we would have seen USA coloumn rocketing sky high…
Yes, India does have some really flawed system, but the overall picture isent as bad as the future of USA is.
You’re watching too much TV or too many bad movies. India is growing, and growing fast. It’s atleast 50 years behind the US, so live with it.
I’m betting If they had a scale displaying the results of who couldn’t spell COLUMN correctly, I’m thinking India’s results would be rocketing sky high too….
The reprasentaion is pretty good ! But,I don’t think this is the fact.
eventually India will be over and above USA in the next 20 years
Yes, I heard that 20 years ago, and 20 years before that.
Authors should provide a key for easier readability. I know it isn’t hard to figure out what color is which, but it is common sense to add a key for clarity from the start.
Agreed – Key would have been useful.
so wot does it prove or tell us that we already dont know.. bullshit..
What ever the religion may be, we have more common goals than the differences, like the fact that we are here for getting better at finances.
Notice the CO2 emissions part. India has 3 times the population of US. Yet, every news channel and so called ‘pundits’ club India with China in the club of worst CO2 emitters. Stop driving your gas-guzzling tanks to work instead of blaming India.
I think if the analysis is done based on % not on numbers, then these pictures will look a lot different.
But as usual very nice analysis.
The discussion above regarding Muslims is juvenile at best. Sounds like an O’reily debate and thats an oxy”moron” right there. Anyway India, has a historical connection with Muslims. For “CHRISTs” sake, India was ruled by the Mughal empire for over 250 years. Furthermore, India is a very recent concept as far as a national identity is concerned. Historically, its always been a set of fragmented states almost always at war with each other and that has resulted in the overwhelming diversity in the country where no one can agree on any one thing. America on the other hand has historically been a Christian country The premise behind dropping the Atom bomb was “God’s Will” – so religion is undeniably a factor. Islam has entered the sights of the American “commercial/corporate/cultural and military” radar for obvious reasons and as always, the US ends up creating its own cat and mouse game of “dealing” with Islam. Saying that, if an attempt is made to maturely infer from these statistics, it would reflect on the two of the most thriving democracies on our planet. I fail to understand why a Redneck and “Bihari” cannot see eye-to-eye on this. America calls itself the “Defender of Democracy” amongst other crazed GI-Joe rhetoric while India lazily sells its Democracy to a Billion people everyday regardless of religion. Yes, we have a caste system in place and have “slaves” but most of this was the result of ignorance and orthodox tradition. What scares me about America is its fundamentalist ideology of Reason that justifies the deliberate enslavement of Humans.
This is a flawed comparison because first, India is a country of >1 Billion people – so even a 40% literacy rate would supersede America’s entire population.Yet evidently, Indians are not half as productive as Americans (in their own country). The only reason Indians do so well in American (economically) is because they benefit from Government and ok, “Free market” capitalism. Taking that into context, the unimaginable growth rate will show its true effects a generation later. India needs to be socialist, it doesnt choose to. Free Market economics does not and will not scale in a country with thrice the population and 1/3rd the land mass of America. Measures like the number of beer drinkers are irrelevant – because a large number of Indians (rural) drink home-made liquor.The problem is that unlike America ,India has not institutionalized its pop-culture around “Beer” (atleast not as yet). Americans share a large common ground to identify with each other and thus are more homogeneous than Indians who as a population would only respond to Cricket and Bollywood. This is changing however.
“# of Miss Universe wins” is a measure that can be interpreted as a measure of Women’s rights and independence. I ask you regular “Joes” not to mock my country any longer as we are a country who fought for its Independence through non-violence. Sadly you intimidate our youth and we are now obsessed to prove a point to America. We are the underdogs now and this realization is slowly dawning upon my nation.
/\ \/
Satyameva Jayate
Well said! ….. and cud’nt agree more!!
fun read but http://www.amazon.com/How-Lie-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/dp/0393310728 just saying…
The Muslim and not Hindu is because the writer is a typical Islamist loving Lefty. And most tend to be employed or funded by Saudis.
We all the know the Saudi world view – use their money to make Islam dominant while trying to ridicule and marginalize every other religion with bold lies. They have been at it for 30 years now and these stats are small sample of their hate plus the confusion of self hating Americans.
How about total numbers of people who have voted in Indian elections vs total number of people who have voted in US elections since independence for both countries.
That’s really Awesome job..
Please don’t fight on religions. I believe only people may be bad but not the Religion.
Well said. Religions are here for uniting people and not dividing us.
hey ,
with all those facts why dont mint.com now be open to indians.
i think that would be great for mint to add hell lot of new users…
One should be looking at infrastructure, not number of people. A country with lot of population and no proper infrastructure can never become a developed country
Its EXTREMELY SAD, that out of ALL The Statistics shown here, which includes Health, Education, Poverty, Technology etc… I find people here found the most important thing to discuss is about what they have shown ( just one graph) on Religion, and then having absolutely meaningless, and thoughtless comments.
VERY VERY SAD indeed . If this is the quality of people who have access to Internet and Computer, then I can only say —- GOD SAVE OUR GENERATION!!!
No wonder today in this world of ours Millions are still dying of starvation, disease and there are children having no access to basic education…
I AM DEEPLY SADDENED …….
@Arnab Sen: You hit the nail. The reason is simple – these morons don’t have any real knowledge and they don’t qualify to discuss the REAL issues. They just know how to throw mud at each other as that is the easiest thing to do without using brains.
hey i completely agree to arnab sen ,
this post shows cool statistics, and let us concentrate on the wulity of post and not on religious wars ,
india is a beautiful nation , the most amazin part part of the statics is the divorce rate in india is negligible, i think people there are more understanding and have a lot of patience ,
I disagree with “hosted virtual desktop”. The recent stats amongst urban, educated and well-to-do Indian women indicate that the divorce rate amongst this group is going up enormously. Financially independant Indian women are unable to accept a status-quo and this is leading to a very high divorce rate. All goes to show that give a woman financial independance and you wil find that they are the same all over the world. In my younger years I thought Indian women were different, I thought we(Indians) had a very different set of values, not true any more. Given the same set of financial and economic status, we all tend to behave the same worldwide.
How about oddities like
1. No of people defecating in public
2. Amount of potholes on roads
3. People crazy to go to America and miss India
4. No of fisticuffs on the roads
5. No of rich kids killing people in public and escape punishment
6. No of actress who says there is no casting couch
7. No of politicians grabbing public property
8. No of leaders under Z+ protection
…….
……
Hey Mr David Bonniview, you sound like a bigot and a racist. You sound like you come from the same stock & thing tank that supplied US arms in the neighborhood to destabilize India. Guess what, after last years Lehmann brothers crash which took the US economy apart, the Indian economy only felt a gentle ripple. Why, because all the efforts made by the US to destabilize India did not work. That makes the Indian economy 50 years ahead of that of the US. So live with that.
Out of tens of statistics religion seems to be the topic.. Where are we? and where is it that we are going?
It is pathetic to claim Hinduisam a great religion. I am an untouchable and my people suffered an inhuman treatment for centuries. If I have my way I will banish Hinduisam from face of this earth.
I do not care for what west thinks of Islam, I thank Islam for making and treating untouchable as humans over centuries in India. This goes the same to Christians as well.
There is nothing redeemable in Hinduisam as long as it practices casteisam.
They forgot to include dowry deaths and how about mass killings of untouchables.
Please stop comparing most corrupt India with a decent nation like USA.
Nice job by author. I liked the article except the comments based on religion!!
raj sekhar
Hinduism is way of life.
Real hinduism is Sanātana Dharma, a Sanskrit phrase meaning “the eternal law”, ,Ahimsa and vegetarianism
Casteism is not made by god. It is made by ppl in indian society. u should understand that.
According to hindu mytology
When Brahma was involved in the job of procreation due to toil and perspiration, a negative energy emanated from him. This negative energy took form of Rakshasas (Devils) Madhu and Kaitabha, evil and inhuman souls. They started torturing Brahma. Brahma appealed to Lord Vishnu who readily appeared and killed both of them. He explained to Brahma that when a positive energy is utilized, negative energy also emanates, and that a special race of humans should be created to protect the entire human race. Brahma acting on this advice sat down for meditation. At the end of the day four different forms of energy for the human race were formed out of Brahma’s body. Brahmins were created at dawn, Kshatriyas at Noon, Vaishyas at dusk and Shudras at night. Note that these were the Varnas i.e. wansha- caste’ (Jati) as now thought of today. Usually this is told as Brahmins were born from Brahma’s head, ending with Shudras from the feet. In the Rig Veda the varnas were not rigid and were related to ones actions.
All are part of god.
Cast division exists in society and work they do.
weaver caste is because of their work they do
Brahmis do pooja/ and teaching
kshetriyas are kings or warriors
untouchable came in to exist because of their work they do.
Brahmis are isolated because they usually follow strict form of hindu religion. as non meater, non-voilence etc. they dont want to mix with other who dont follow it erect.
Such thing are vanishing. dont support in ur family about casteism or untouchbility. think equality and be equal to other. thats the way it will go.
after another century i dont think it will exists
dont keep crying saying “i m untouchble”
put ur efforts forward!
Many of these statistics are completely wrong. As I moved down the charts, I found more and more BS. Looking at pretty charts is one thing, examining reliable date quite another. If you are interested in this sort of a thing, I suggest checking out http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/ – their data is reliable and their charts are even prettier
Nice article…can’t say the same about the religious discussion that followed. Hinduism was left out of the comparisions but so was Protestant Christanity, the largest religious faith in the US. So take a deep breath all you sensitive types.
The terrorism numbers must have included US war deaths in the ongoing Iraq & Afghan war – that’s the only way those numbers make any sense.
Would have liked to see comparisions on a few other things like
– people with undergarduate degrees
– infrasructure spending
– corruption comparision
– tourism revenues
– mobile phone users