What's the Most Average Country?
110,544
Published 2024-06-30
Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:29 Picking our statistics
1:41 What countries? What average?
2:42 The most median countries
4:29 The most arithmetic mean countries
6:54 What else?
7:52 Outro
Here's why we multiply the ratios for the arithmetic mean score instead of adding them: it means that the effect of each statistic is "weighted" more evenly. For instance, the highest score on HDI is just 1.94 (Somalia), while the highest score on area is 343,085 (Monaco). If we added the scores, HDI would be irrelevant for all but the most average countries, while by multiplying them HDI can still double or halve the total score, which can still move a country up or down a couple of places even if it's very far from the average. This affects the bottom of the list more than the top - the winners are the same either way.
Here's the data for you to check out yourself:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTaKa5dWl-…
Data citations:
UN and IMF tables
Taiwan HDI: ws.dgbas.gov.tw/Download.ashx?u=LzAwMS9VcGxvYWQvMC…
North Korea, Niue, Cook Islands, Monaco HDI: repository.unescap.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.128…
Image citations:
Wiki Infobox: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain
Car Assembly: Marek Ślusarczyk, CC BY
Vatican: Anne Offermanns, CC BY
Hawk Sound: PsychoBird, CC BY
Applause: Vincent Le Moign, CC BY
World population cartogram: Max Roser; population data from UN Population Division, CC BY
North Korea Victory Day: Stefan Krasowski, CC BY
End screen music: "Azərbaycan marşı" (national anthem of Azerbaijan)
All Comments (21)
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I like the idea of Colombia being the most average because the official language is one of the most spoken on earth, their religion is largest denomination of the largest religion, and they're ethnically diverse as well. Even their government is average, being on the fence between flawed democracy and hybrid regime.
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Broooo as a Colombian, I've always described my country as "Earth's middle class" basically We're not Sierra Leone or Haiti levels of poor, we're not rich like Germany or Japan either. We're not a big or small country. We're developed in some areas and underdeveloped in others. I've always felt like in every statistic we lie somewhere between 37th and 80th place. We have decent enough protections and freedoms, but the government does shady shit all the time. We're mostly conservative, but a very good amount of the country is quite liberal and progressive. We're not in constant economic turmoil, but never doing great either. We're VERY average
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As a Latin America Colombia always felt like the average of us. Brazil is the largest and most powerful. Chile and Uruguay are the most developed. Venezuela is the most broke, Haiti is the worst at everything. And Colombia is just right in the middle
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Looking at the FIFA rankings (football being the most popular sport) we have 210 countries and the average is a hypothetical 105.5th position. Kosovo is 105th and Guatemala is 106th. But of the countries mentioned in this video, we have Thailand at 100th and Azerbaijan at 111th. Both equally close to 105.5. So congrats again Thailand and Azerbaijan, you are also average at the most average sport.
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Average Greetings from an average guy from Azerbaijan :)
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One category Azerbaijan is not average in is "difficulty of spelling".
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I Live in Tunisia, Life here is pretty Normal, very calm nothing going on that much, easy pace, nothing in rush. We don't have the best life quality, but compared to the Region and neighbours, Tunisia is still the best out there. We're developed enough due to proximity to Europe.
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Hello. As an azerbaijanian want to say, that our anthem is a real march, and almost candidates for an opera.
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Congrats to most NPC countries 🎉🇦🇿🇹🇳🇯🇴
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Malaysia makes a lot of sense as being “very average” because it’s a mix of three different cultural spheres in Asia: Malay, Chinese, and Indian. It’s a very religiously and culturally diverse country with both large metropolitan areas (like the capital Kuala Lumpur) and vast swathes of wilderness (the rainforests of Borneo). Additionally, its economy is newly industrialized, meaning that it’s well developed compared to other countries in Southeast Asia but it still lags behind most of the West. And like much of the world, it’s a former English colony and a large portion of its population knows English as a second language.
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lol I'm Venezuelan and I immediately guessed "It 100% HAS to be Colombia" before I even clicked on the video. It just makes intuitive sense not just in terms of the types of statistics you used in your analysis, but also culturally, ethnically, religiously, economically, and even geopolitically. I would also venture to guess that most Latin Americans would comfortably and intuitively call Colombia the most average Latin American country without even thinking much about the question. I think the only major ways in which it isn't average would be in how young of a nation it is ("Colombia" as an idea is only about 200 years old, and even the bulk of the people who live there have only been there for ~500 years or so) and how biodiverse it is (#1 in the world by various metrics).
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I'm only at 30 secs, but this video is already a certified banger 🗣🔥
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Azerbaijan is certainly not average in the respect that its anthem is an absolute banger
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For the editing and entertainment alone, I could have sworn this video had at least 200K views! Really good content, you're sure to grow much more in the future.
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The legend astronomer came back
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Azerbaijani here. The thing is we are also really close to the middle of the world map. But if Azerbaijan is the average country on earth, it is a little bit sad. As any Eastern European country, our youth relocate to Europe to study and work there. Society is not that open to experience new things, etc. The thing is Azerbaijan will give you just enough opportunities to leave the country but not enough to make a great living in here. Besides, our passport is also a bit problematic. Going through all that visa hurdle…Complete bummer.
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If you are confused with the outro, it's the Azerbaijani national anthem. Greetings from Azerbaijan 🇦🇿
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As a person from Azerbaijan it really feels pretty average everything in the country
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Another great video from this channel, as always!
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I didn't learn anything from this video. Subscribed.