FACT: Americans rank 4th in the world for median income, 44th for life expectancy.

THE NUMBERS: U.K. “rank” if it were an American state –

Per capita income:	51st
Life expectancy	1st

WHAT THEY MEAN:

The gloomier sort of Brit has been muttering for 15 years about income comparisons with the United States. Here’s a sample from the London-based Social Market Foundation last year:

“[T]he UK’s failure to match higher incomes across the Atlantic has drawn particular attention and generated greater concern. Almost a decade ago, observers were suggesting that if the UK were an American state it would be the second poorest … More recently, commentators have used the gap to argue that ‘Britain is a developing country,’ or that the ‘hard working US is getting rich while the UK struggles on benefits.’”

Is the United States really that rich? In some ways, yes:

Statisticians at Our World in Data, scrutinizing World Bank stats on incomes and poverty rates, find Americans earning $72.07 in “international dollars” per person each day. Our World’s “international dollar” isn’t the green one in the wallet, but a hypothetical version that they’ve (a) normalized for inflation, (b) used “purchasing power parities” to avoid currency-valuation-based income skews, and (c) taken a “median” rather than a “mean” average to minimize effects of superwealthy individuals. Their list places Americans 4th among 115 countries. See below for some quibbles — they don’t include a few small high-income countries (e.g., Singapore, Kuwait, UAE, Qatar); some of the gap represents longer U.S. working hours rather than higher pay as such; and (see below) the U.S. fares less well on “wealth” than “income.” But nonetheless, $72.07 per day for the median American is a lot — 32% above the median Brit’s $54.55, 70% above Japan’s $42.10, and five times China’s $13.36. So Americans do indeed earn a lot of money. Here’s a sample of Our World’s findings:

Median daily income, international PPP dollars* –
1. Luxembourg	$89.49
2. Norway	$77.76
3. Switzerland	$72.29
4. United States	$72.07
15. United Kingdom	$54.55
25. Japan	$42.10
58. China	$13.32

So World Cup visitors to the U.S. venues this June may be a little envious of American affluence. Americans shouldn’t be spiking any spherical footballs, though. Here’s a mirror-image U.S.-U.K. comparison from gloomy researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore:

“Why has the U.S. fallen behind in health? … Forty years ago, babies born in the U.S. and the U.K. could expect to live to the same age. Today, however, life expectancy is several years shorter on our side of the Atlantic Ocean. What’s going on? In a new analysis of 2023 data from the U.S. and England and Wales, this report finds that differences in four preventable causes of death can explain the entire 2.7-year gap in life expectancy: cardiovascular disease, overdose, motor vehicle crashes, and gun violence.”

So if Americans might earn more money, they have less time to enjoy it. The Centers for Disease Control’s most recent life-expectancy report takes the data through 2024, and finds Americans expecting 79 years at birth. This represents full recovery from the COVID pandemic drop and closes a bit of the transatlantic gap, but still leaves Americans fully two years below the U.K.’s 81-year life expectancy. Flipping the Social Market Foundation’s Brits-at-the-bottom premise, the U.K. would likely tie for first with Hawaii among American states for life expectancy. On a world scale, the World Bank’s full span of cross-country life expectancy comparisons, all from 2024 and excluding micro-states, tax havens, and small dependencies, places the U.S. 44th. Another short table, with more complete stats below:

Japan	84 years
Australia	83 years
UK	81 years
U.S.	79 years
China	78 years

A $72.07 vs. $54.55 daily earnings gap is the equivalent of $6,400 a year. If asked whether they’d sacrifice that to get two more years of life, lots of Americans would probably accept.

Why the difference? Drawing from the JHU report and KFF analysis, the life-expectancy divide appears (a) mainly related to public health and social issues, and (b) possible to close. Two ways to look at this:

1. Causes: Kaiser Foundation researchers point out two big contributors to the gap:

i. Homicides and drug overdoses: About a quarter of the gap vis-à-vis America’s European and Asian peer economies — about six months’ worth of life — reflects higher U.S. rates of firearm crimes and drug overdoses. America’s homicide rate, at 5.8 per 100,000 people annually, compares poorly to Poland’s 1.0 homicides per 100,000 people, the U.K.’s 1.2, and France’s 2.3. Across the Pacific, Singapore’s 0.1 homicides per 100,000 people is the world’s lowest rate, with Japan’s 0.2 and China’s 0.5 not much higher. Likewise, KFF reports that the U.S. rate of death from drug overdoses and alcohol poisoning (as of 2023) was 29 per 100,000 people, about six times the 5 deaths per 100,000 people rate in other high-income countries.

ii. Heart and lung diseases: Most of the rest, about a year’s worth, reflects higher U.S. rates of lung and heart diseases in middle and old age. Here, the main issues appear to be diet, obesity, smoking, and exercise rates.

2. Disparities: The U.S.’s 79-year expectancy is a national median. CDC statisticians haven’t completed their analysis by states and regions, and by race and ethnicity, for 2024, but earlier years are suggestive. As of 2022, state life expectancies varied by eight years, from West Virginia’s 72 years to the European-standard 80 years in Massachusetts and Hawaii. By race and ethnicity (as of 2023), the range is wider still: 70 years for Native Americans, 74 years for African Americans, 78 years for white Americans, a European-standard 81 years for Hispanics (including 82 for Puerto Ricans), and a world-standard 85 years for Asian Americans.

So: The causes are complex social and policy problems, but not totally intractable. The U.S. homicide rate peaked in the 1980s at 11.6 per 100,000 and has since fallen by half. Drug overdose deaths, meanwhile, peaked early in 2023. As treatment has grown more easily available and public awareness campaigns have become more effective, overdose deaths have dropped about 40%. Gaps between states likewise suggest that local policies can have large impacts.

And as far as doleful cross-country comparisons go, Americans are high earners. Doubtless, there are things others can learn from us on that. There’s a lot we can learn as well.

FACT: Americans rank 4th in the world for median income, 44th for life expectancy.

THE NUMBERS: U.K. “rank” if it were an American state –

WHAT THEY MEAN:

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