Australia/United States Comparison

      One area of the world that has always interest me is Australia. I don’t know why, if it’s the Australian accent we love as kids, the kangaroos or the geography; maybe all of them. I decided to take a closer look at this country and make a few comparisons to the United States to answer something I have always wondered; how alike or unalike are the countries of Australia and the United States. By using the CIA world fact book I was able to gather some general information about language, economics along with a few other statistics to make my comparisons between these two countries.

      One of the first things I looked at in my investigation was the language breakdown in each country. Before looking I knew that English was a primary language in Australia but I was unaware that it made up 78% of the population; only 2% under the percent of English speaking people in the US. The biggest difference between these countries, in regards to language, was the breakdown of the remaining 20% of the population. For the US, Spanish makes up just over 10% of the population, with the remaining portion only making up a minor portion of the total population. For Australia, Chinese and Italian make up around 2% each with many other, less popular, languages making up the remainder of the population.

      Though the main information I wanted to acquire through this investigation had to do with the language breakdown, there were a few other things I inspired to understand about Australia to obtain a better understanding. Literacy in both countries is 99%; a very high score for any country. Unemployment in Australia is 12%; 5% lower than the United States, which was surprising to me. As for the economy side of things, Australia’s GDP/capita is at $40,800 compared to the United States $48,100.  Nearly $8,000 may seem like a large difference between the countries. However, when you take into consideration the 15% of people, in the US, below the poverty line, compared to the 8% in Australia, it isn’t so bad.  

      My main purpose in doing this comparison was to gain a better understanding of Australia; something I have wanted to do for a long time. I have always just assumed that this country was like the US, but never looked up the facts to back up this assumption. By doing this investigation, though it was only a general one, I feel I have indeed obtained a better understanding of Australia. My assumption proved to be correct in that Australia and the United States are very alike. Minus the geographic differences, these two countries are close to mirror images of one another.

Link to CIA World Factbook