|
|
|
Name: the Commonwealth of Australia.
A referendum to change from a member of the British Commonwealth to a republic was defeated in 1999.
Figures unless otherwise stated are from the CIA Factbook.
Estimated per capita GDP:
2007 $37,500 (ranks 23rd. Passes Denmark)
2006 $33,300
2005 $31,600
2004 $30,700,
2003 $28,900
1999 $23,200
GDP annual growth rate estimated for 2007: 4.0 percent. (Ranks 138th)
GDP growth in 2004: 3.3 percent compared to 4.4 percent for the United States and 3.2 for Britain.
Australia's 2004 export/import ratio remains slightly negative at 87:91.
Miltary expenditures as a percentage of GDP: 2.4 (2006).
Gender gap: The World Economic Forum lists Australia as eighth in the world in the elimination of a gender gap. This is ahead of the United States, which does not appear among the top ten.
The top 10 percent in household income in 1994 did 25.4 percent of spending for consumers goods. For the lowest 10 percent of households this was 2 percent. For France in 1995 the difference was a little less, at 25.1 and 2.8. In the United States for 1997 the figures are 30.5 and 1.8.
For 2007, deaths 7.62; births: 11.9.
July 2008 estimate: 20.6 million. Growth rate: 0.801 percent.
A net gain from migration of 3.72 per 1,000 persons
Ninety-two percent are Caucasian, 7 percent Asian, and 1 percent aboriginal and others. Anglicans and Catholics are about equal in number, each around 26 percent of the population. Other Christians are 24 percent, and the rest 24 percent.
Infant mortality estimated for 2008: 4.51, down from 4.57 in 2007. (Deaths before the age of one year, per 1,000 live births.)
Average life expectancy estimated for 2008: 80.73 years.
Australia is recorded at Nationmaster.com as spending $1,774 per person on health care. The United States in 1999 is recorded as having spent $4,271 per person.
Australia has a national heath care system, introduced in 1984, financed by taxing 1.5 percent of income. It covers two-thirds of most doctor fees and public hospital care. One-third of health care costs are paid either out of pocket by patients or by their private health care insurance. Seventy-five percent of all hospital beds are in public hospitals, 25 percent in private hospitals. People with private health insurance choose their own doctor and hospital and have less of a wait for non-urgent procedures.
Australia is said to have produced an abundance of "important medical researchers and scientists."
For a single worker without children, in the year 2001, including contributions to Social Security, an Australian earning an average wage paid 23.1 percent of income for taxes. In the U.S. this was 30 percent, in Belgium 55.6 percent.
Australia has had 0.01 murders per 1,000 population, compared to 0.04 for the United States. It has had 1.56 in prison compared to 7.15 in the United States and 0.85 for France.
Expenditures for 2003 were 2.8 percent of GDP.
In 2002, 48 percent of the population accessed the internet, compared to 40 percent for Britain and 55 percent that year for the United States.
The happiness survey, described at Nationmaster.com, gives Australia a 90 percent rating compared to 84 for United States, 2 for Russia and minus 24 for Bulgaria.
SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
http://www.nationmaster.com/index.php
Copyright © 2008 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.