Dear USA ...we are no longer the fattest ! Woot !

[Spectral]

To generalize a population, sure. For an individual basis... not so much (in specific cases).

... All that does is repeat exactly what I said.

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BMI is not good.. It doesn't take anything in account other than weight and length.

Which works perfectly for population-level statistics.

[Kalyyn]

Sorry to disappoint, but the United States is more educated than every European country.

Damn, look at Canada! I would have never guessed. Although it does make sense. They have many of the benefits the US has (as well as the benefit of an open border with the US) but none of the poor people.

[Deleted]

Kick the UK out of Europe, problem solved.

Since the US always wants to be #1, wonder how long it'll take to get there again.

No need to kick us out, let the British citizens vote on the subject and we would be out by next week.

[Reeve]

BMI is not good.. It doesn't take anything in account other than weight and length.

Unless you're referring to a penis measurement, it's weight and height.

My friend's Estonian wife always gets that wrong. "Well that's just because you're so long, Trevor."

[Kalyyn]

Unless you're referring to a penis measurement, it's weight and height.

My friend's Estonian wife always gets that wrong. "Well that's just because you're so long, Trevor."

Ha! Your name is Trevor!

Actually, I rather like that name...

[Spectral]

They only looked at 34 countries from what can see and even then it's not a comparison between the U.Sand europe but 34 countries all over the world.

It's the OECD, meaning it includes all Western and Northern European countries (picture). Yes, I know this doesn't fit the mindset that some Europeans have regarding how the US is oh-so-stupid, but the US is simply more educated than any European nation.

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Damn, look at Canada! I would have never guessed. Although it does make sense. They have many of the benefits the US has (as well as the benefit of an open border with the US) but none of the poor people.

Their other two advantages are demographics and an immigration system that gives a highly educated immigration population, and not so much on uneducated migrant labor.

[Asmekiel]

No need to kick us out, let the British citizens vote on the subject and we would be out by next week.

I know.. pretty sad actually considering the possibilities.

Unless you're referring to a penis measurement, it's weight and height.

My friend's Estonian wife always gets that wrong. "Well that's just because you're so long, Trevor."

Everyone loves penises, no?

[Spectral]

Apart from that, not all high schools across the world are on the same level.

The data shown is for university-level education. Since the United States utterly dominates the best universities list (one source), it's safe to say that the degree rate statistics aren't skewed by the US having weaker universities.

[Reeve]

Sorry to disappoint, but [URL="http://www.educationnews.org/higher-education/most-educated-countries/"]the United States is more educated than every European country

I'm surprised the US has such high college education levels compared to other countries. I mean college education is so much more expensive here than a lot of other places, you'd think people would do it less here and more there.

Also, 100% literacy rate, Finland? You must be cheating.

BMI's a perfectly cromulent population-level statistic.

I'm still not convinced. Past a certain height, it's not a very good measure at all. Do the population level stats take into account the skew when looking at populations that have a lot more very tall people than other populations?

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Ha! Your name is Trevor!

Actually, I rather like that name...

Heh, I've been running a Magical Trevor avatar for years.

[Cybran]

Sorry to disappoint, but the United States is more educated than every European country.

That is just quantity and it doesn't reflect on quality.

[Deleted]

Sorry to disappoint, but the United States is more educated than every European country.

BMI's a perfectly cromulent population-level statistic.

I see what you did there.

[Asmekiel]

The data shown is for university-level education. Since the United States utterly dominates the best universities list (one source), it's safe to say that the degree rate statistics aren't skewed by the US having weaker universities.

US also has more universities than any other country, how does this proof anything?
And the other chart clearly says high school and college. So unless my understanding of the US education system is utterly wrong, it wasn't really about universities at all.

[Catta]

Laugh it up while you still can, Europe. You're catching up. Most of the developed world is, actually.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/

Depends really. Iirc UK is not far behind but the US has 3 times as much obesity per capita as Denmark, Netherlands and Finland.

[Spectral]

I'm surprised the US has such high college education levels compared to other countries. I mean college education is so much more expensive here than a lot of other places, you'd think people would do it less here and more there.

Something I've been kvetching about for a bit is that the reason college is expensivish is because it's worth it. People are simply making a rational decision. Why don't the make the same decision in other countries? I don't know. Perhaps the cheapness leads people to undervalue it.

I'm still not convinced. Past a certain height, it's not a very good measure at all. Do the population level stats take into account the skew when looking at populations that have a lot more very tall people than other populations?

I don't know that there's any populations where that skewing is substantial enough to really matter for this kind of comparison. Most people in advanced countries are within a couple SDs of the median. If we're using BMI-based obesity rates as a predictor of obesity-related diseases on large populations, it's a perfectly good statistic. The entire problem with BMI is that it's been popularized as a tool of individual measurement. Even then, it's actually pretty decent for more people than not; there's not near as many people that are athlete body types as people that believe they have athlete body types. If someone's BMI is 32, but they're not fat, it's pretty easy for that person to be aware of it.

Maybe it doesn't work right for the Netherlands or some other exceptionally tall country. I'm not really worried about that being the reason that the US, UK, and Australia have ballooning obesity rates though.

[Deleted]

That is just quantity and it doesn't reflect on quality.

It is also screwed up by the fact that a College means different things in different countries. A College in the UK is nothing like an American College, so saying X amount of UK citizens do not have a College degree can be very confusing.

[Spectral]

That is just quantity and it doesn't reflect on quality.

Indeed, if we go by university quality, the gap becomes much larger. California has more top 100 universities than any other country, outside of the UK.

[Reeve]

Something I've been kvetching about for a bit is that the reason college is expensivish is because it's worth it. People are simply making a rational decision. Why don't the make the same decision in other countries? I don't know. Perhaps the cheapness leads people to undervalue it.



I don't know that there's any populations where that skewing is substantial enough to really matter for this kind of comparison. Most people in advanced countries are within a couple SDs of the median. If we're using BMI-based obesity rates as a predictor of obesity-related diseases on large populations, it's a perfectly good statistic. The entire problem with BMI is that it's been popularized as a tool of individual measurement. Even then, it's actually pretty decent for more people than not; there's not near as many people that are athlete body types as people that believe they have athlete body types. If someone's BMI is 32, but they're not fat, it's pretty easy for that person to be aware of it.

Maybe it doesn't work right for the Netherlands or some other exceptionally tall country. I'm not really worried about that being the reason that the US, UK, and Australia have ballooning obesity rates though.

It may just be that I'm sensitive to the failings of BMI, being a tall man.

[Spectral]

US also has more universities than any other country, how does this proof anything?

More elite universities, not just more universities.

And the other chart clearly says high school and college. So unless my understanding of the US education system is utterly wrong, it wasn't really about universities at all.

Read it again; the nations are ranked by college education rate.

[Asmekiel]

Indeed, if we go by university quality, the gap becomes much larger. California has more top 100 universities than any other country, outside of the UK.

Again, quantity... how are you going to compare a country that has 10x as much universities than another country by just pointing at a chart saying it has more universities in the top 100. Of course it has, the other country simply doesn't have enough universities.

[ripponesan]

That is just quantity and it doesn't reflect on quality.

And this again prooves that you need a certain level of education to notice that you are uneducated and cant read a statistic.