Dalley 1

Ryan Dalley
Rural Sociology
Professor Gilles

Demography, Economy, and the Quality of Life

This paper is an evaluation on ten countries and the comparisons between them. The

countries included are; Russia, China, South Africa, Brazil, the United States, Germany, Kenya,

Cambodia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. This essay will compare and contrast their

economic and demographic data, along with measures of social well-being. Of all countries, a

major emphasis will surround my destined sojourn country Ireland, its neighboring country the

United Kingdom, as well as the United States.

When compared to the United States many might think that Ireland’s economy and

demography stands no chance. In actuality, the data collected in the two tables analyzes each

country per capita and when scaled down, the data shows that Ireland and the U.S. are much

alike. As labeled in the first data table, Ireland’s Human development index is ranked very

highly (8th) and is listed two positions ahead of the United States (10th). This is intriguing

because according to U.S. News the United States is the most powerful country in the world, yet

they fall behind Ireland and 8 other countries on the HDI rankings per capita. A huge fault the

U.S. and Ireland both have is carrying an astonishing amount of debt. The Government debt as a

percentage of each country’s GDP lists Ireland with 117% and the U.S. 107% , each collecting

more debt than any other country being studied. Given this information, one can only think how

did they let their country’s debt get to this state? And what steps can they take to restore

themselves? Demographically and economically speaking, the U.S. and Ireland are very similar

except for one aspect, taxes. Ireland’s taxes in proportion to their total GDP is doubled that of the

United States. Nearly 20% of Ireland's GDP falls under taxes, while only 11% of the GDP from
 Dalley 2

the U.S. is taxed based. The most differences between Ireland and the U.S. are found in their

qualities of life. When examining each country’s quality of life, Ireland is found to be more

reputable over the United States in every category listed on the data table. For example, the U.S.

has over twice the amount of adolescent pregnancies as Ireland, has a higher prison population

with 618 more inmates than Ireland per 100,000 people, and for every 1 homicide in Ireland

there are 3.55 homicides in the United States. I believe that the poverty gap has a huge role to

play in the comparison of quality of life between these two countries. The United States has a far

greater population than Ireland and has twice the percentage of people living in poverty. In

summary, I believe that because of these proponents the quality of life is definitely going to

favor Ireland. Another major distinction falls under maternity leave, the biggest difference

between the U.S. and every other country is that the U.S. offers an 84 day unpaid maternity

leave. Meanwhile, Ireland offers more days off than every other country with 182 days and still

pays for this leave of absence. Overall, the demography and economy between these countries

reflect many similarities, while the true distinctions between the United States and Ireland are

represented in their differences of quality of life.

Ireland’s largest neighboring country is the United Kingdom. The U.K. is ranked 16th on

the Human Development Index, falling 8 countries behind Ireland. Although most of the data

tables lean in favor of Ireland, these two countries have some close similarities. To begin,

income inequality refers to how evenly or unevenly income is distributed in a society and

represents the gap between the rich and the poor. One similarity between the United Kingdom

and Ireland is their low income inequality. They have the exact same income inequality

measured as 5.3 quintiles which is very low when compared to the other countries. This

represents that each country has an even spread of income being made amongst their population.
 Dalley 3

I believe that these countries have a short gap of inequality due to their tax and transfer system.

Meaning, the wealthy are taxed more than others which is a very effective way to redistribute

income. This being said, while the income inequality of each country is very low, taxes are very

high. Another similarity between Ireland and its neighboring country is that they are both

notorious for high taxes. In comparison to each country’s GDP, the United Kingdom has 25.4%

of it made up from taxes as compared to Ireland’s 19.3%. Out of all ten countries, only South

Africa has a greater ratio of taxes in their total GDP. When comparing the qualities of life

between the U.K. and Ireland, both countries come off as very safe places to live. After all, they

list among the top in life expectancy at birth, with Ireland’s expectancy being 81.1 years and the

U.K’s being 80.8 years. Not to mention, for every 100,000 people; Ireland has a homicide rate of

1.1 and maternal mortality rate of 8. While the United kingdom has a homicide rate of .9 and

maternal mortality rate of 9 per 100,000 people. In relationship to the other 8 countries these

numbers are found to be extremely low and on the safe end. In the final analysis, the United

Kingdom and Ireland still contain many differences as well. Despite being neighboring countries,

Ireland offers a huge 182 day paid maternity leave while the U.K. offer just 14 days, resulting in

a 168 day difference between the two countries. Another dissimilarity regards the prison

population. For every 100,000 people there are 80 prisoners in Ireland to the United Kingdom’s

146. I believe the population difference between the two countries plays a key role in the

differences of their qualities of life. I assume that the major distinctions between paid maternity

leave points towards the differences in population. The U.K. has roughly 60 million more

inhabitants than Ireland. This being said, the price paid for a longer maternity leave would be

much more significant in the U.K. as supposed to Ireland. Furthermore, countries with higher

populations are more prone to having social discrepancies leading towards more crimes and
 Dalley 4

prisoners. As data shows, for being neighboring countries they have many similarities, but with a

significant difference in population comes a divergent standard of life. Ireland ranks among the

upper percentile in each data table category with few outliers, its neighboring country the United

Kingdom is also a reputable country trailing not too far behind.

Every country showcases their own unique culture that separates itself from rest. One

separation that surprised me regards China’s quality of life and its homicide rates. China has a

large population 1.379 billion people, yet they have the lowest homicide rate out of all 10

countries. The rate being .8 homicides for every 100,000 people. I get the impression that their

homicide rates are so low because China is a society where people generally have strong respect

for personal public conduct along with criminal laws. It takes a lot of effort to keep the crime

rate down in such a huge country which only proposes the thought, are laws strict enough here

United States? Another statistic that surprised me most was that the United States has the largest

percentage of female legislators, senior official, and senior managers at 43.4 percent. One

controversial topic that I feel is constantly being provoked in the U.S. is gender inequality. I find

it reassuring that despite the alleged “gender war” between men and women in the workforce, it

isn’t nearly as bad as some see it to be. It turns out that the United States has the highest

percentage of females in high up positions than any of the other 9 countries. Another major

discrepancy listed involves the maternal mortality rate of Ireland and that of Kenya. Ireland has

a very low maternal mortality rate of 8 deaths per 100,000 people while Kenya has an extremely

high rate of 510 deaths. In essence, this illustrates the differences in life between a developed

country and a developing country. Kenya has an extremely low HDI ranking of 146 (trailing 138

countries behind Ireland). The key aspect of Kenya’s dramatic difference in quality of life

country is their lack of wealth, technology, and structure. With a lack of protection Kenyans are
 Dalley 5

more prone to reproduction. Not only that, but they lack the medical attention when being

compared to a developed country. With disease, lack of nourishment, and lack of options,

Kenya’s maternal mortality rates are set up for failure as they have one of the highest deaths per

live births in the world.

More often than not it’s the biggest, most industrialized, and most powerful nations in the

worlds that receive the most attention. This data promotes that once countries are scaled down on

an equal scale that there are shocking new frontrunners. Categorizing demographics, the

economy, and social well-being per capita allows for small countries to be equally compared to

the countries with immense populations. By doing so we are able to educate ourselves on the

specific countries rank among highest in each category and bring light to the countries lacking

behind.

Works Cited

http://hdr.undp.org/en/countries

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/united-states
 Dalley 6

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS