Russia vs United States: A Visual Comparison

Cool. Although the one thing that I would comment on is the ‘Total Catholics’ – ‘Total Muslims’ stats, in the offbeat section. Wouldn’t it be better to equate broad religion with broad religion, instead of one denomination of Christianity (Catholicism) with the broad beliefs of Islam? Just my two cents. Interesting stats non the less.

I took Russian (language) two years ago, and my Russian professor (born and raised in Russia) said Russians use the term “happy” differently (she was also one of the most bubbly, cheerful people I’ve ever known). While Americans say they’re having a great day, are happy about this or that or in general, Russians are more reserved about their usage, and they generally only use “happiness” to refer to one or so moments in their life. This doesn’t mean Russians are actually less happy than anyone else, it just means they’re less liberal in their self-descriptions.

I think the “English Speakers” field was the best. News Flash: Russia’s first language – and brace yourself for this shocker – is Russian. With as much possible offence to those of you who think that everyone should speak English, I dare you to learn a legitimately foreign language. And not just a national second language.

I expected better statistics from this website. A disappointment, indeed.

And the off-beat stat about ‘english speakers’ is just absurd! Wow, more Americans speak English in comparison to how many Russians speak English? No s**t. Why not put a stat of how many Americans speak Russian? Probably close to almost 0%.

And about the happiness stat, i’m not sure how that’s measured but I can only guess it’s a load of rubbish.

We have way more rollercoasters than you, Russia! Eat that!

You include catholics and muslims, why not orthodoxy? Its the main religion in Russia, so it sort of makes sense.

It DOES mean plenty without scale.. Scale isnt needed with its a relative comparison. So…. ‘Comment Fail!’…

I would love to know how they got the happiness and corruption indexes. How do you measure corruption? I’m not saying there isn’t a lot of corruption in Russia (every Russian person is very open about this fact), but do you really think there is so much less corruption in America? And every Russian person is miserable? My relatives are plenty happy…

@Eze
Not one is pushing anything on anybody. No one is poking fun at anybody. These are just statistics! Honestly, STFU!

Why did you do total Catholics instead of total Christians? 75-80% of Russians are Orthodox, you make it seem like it’s a Muslim country. Also what the heck is “happiness” based on …? I’ve seen surveys that say Russians are more satisfied with life than the average European.

Otherwise pretty cool I guess.

It is nice to show bars with no numerical or timeline values. Total abortions is twice more in Russia, but the population is more than twice less there than in US, that means # of abortions per citizens is same there or less than in USA. “English speakers” is also a “smart” column, rather put “people speaking foreign languages” per 1000 of population, that would be more accurate cultural measure than things like “number of chessmasters” “Total films made”? Better try average profit % of a movie, then you would see that in absolute static numbers America leads big time, but in dynamic – growth and profitability figures current system has to learn a lot from developing and fast growing economies…

-Russians are Christians however not catholic but Orthodox Christians.FAIL
-Comparing total values is ridiculous since the population of Russia is less than half the population of America. FAIL
-Overall, speaking in terms of statistics, most chars make no sense since the don’t show a scale, where the data was collected and there are no definitions of the parameters. Propaganda FAIL

Section 1 (Economy), top right. The graph is labeled “per capita” WTF is that supposed to mean? Per capita what? Presumable GDP since it’s the economy section, but Jesus, it’s not that hard.

english speakers??

Who is “poking fun?” Hard to see just how looking at raw data can be twisted into a political fight. Even the brief article accompanying the data was fairly complimentary and recognizing that Russia is a powerhouse.

Sounds like someone has a chip on his shoulder.

we have 2.5 chessmasters, You have only one DD

Soviet Union or Russia?? You know that they do not have the same size, do you?
No scales. This is really bad. A small % symbol would be enough. The rest could be by conclusion (?) absolut numbers or do you use even further values.

So I have to say. Maybe misleading and therefore manipulative. Good idea though.

Corruption is wrong . The U.S. is going further in debt . This leads to more deals to be made behind the scenes . Russia has been paying off it’s debt for years . By 2012 they should be paid in full . We don’t even know who the U. S. gov. corporation owes it to ? Yes Russia has corruption, but at least it’s doing the right thing, and taking of it’s business . They just came out of old form of governing . It will take some time before they emerge as really great nation .

I’m glad i can voice an opinion !

well, this time the stats were a bit onesided, as example: who cares about “total English speakers”, it is only relevant for English speaking countries. Russia rocks in many other ways (the author is right…Russia is an undiscovered land for the most Americans)
But anyway, I love your stats Mint! keep going!

These are statistics. They cannot be biased. The only thing that can possibly be biased in this picture would be the questions he chose to give the statistics to.

Also, for those of you looking for scale, look at the size of the bars. Do you notice how each category has at least one full bar? This indicates 100%. The smaller one can be interpreted as whatever percent it looks like: half = 50%, 1/4 = 25% and so on. I think this is a really well designed infographic.

The paradox is: if you’re a cynic, the Russian mentality really is the best one for you

well i just got to say that whoever the fuck made this thing must be pretty damn stupid. considering that the us had a deficit of 4 trillion $ in 2006 im pretty fure that they have a larger public debt. bye the way if there was a russia vs US war russia would go fucking crazy and destroy the US. need proof? look what they did to germany. though chine would destroy the US and probably russia as well (they have 1.5 billion solders).

Looks like America is really going down now. USD getting weaker every week, import rate grows while export rate fall more and more.

Sorry for you guys.

Well, I don’t think this scales represent the reality well enough. # of Nobel prize winners in US is much higher, but are there really so many bright people in the US? I know many examples when Russian people did not get rewarded for an invention or were not even able to promote it. I do agree about drinking part though