The US Population
Currently the United States (US) population consists of 329,256,465 people. Among these 329,256,465 people the median age is 37.6. The population is further displayed in the diagram on the side. Currently the US population is growing by 0.8% a year. The amount of the population dying each year is 8.2 for every 1000 people. The life expectancy for US citizens is 80.1 years, which ranks the US 45th in the world in life expectancy. The United State population has been growing older on average, in comparison with the rest of the world this is in line with many other western countries. To help put this in perspective a graph contained the median age per country is displayed below.
Health care in the United States
For every 1000 citizens there are 2.6 doctors and 2.9 hospital beds available. The federal government spends approximately 17.1% of their budget on health care each year. The US ranking among other high income economies is displayed in the graph. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) states that the United States has the most expensive health care system in the world with the federal government spending an average of $9541 per citizen on health care. This is significantly higher than other OECD countries while the quality and efficiently is ranked higher. The exact reason for this difference between money spend and quality likely has to do with an efficiency problems however an exact cause is not yet found. The graph below aims to display the differences in federal spending on health care between the US and other nations.
Causes of death in the US
Heart disease and Cancer are the main causes of death in the United States with respectively 165 Americans dying of heart disease and 152.5 people dying of cancer for every 100.000 people in the United States. Both main causes, as well as other top ten causes of death are linked to obesity by the World Health Organization (WHO). Obesity and tabaco usage have been quoted as the leading causes of death in the United States by the WHO.
Obesity in the United States
Currently the US population has an obesity rate of 36.2%, this indicates that slightly over one third of the population is obese. Obesity if defined as the condition of being overweight. In the 1990s the World Health Organization (WHO) started warning countries, including the United States, of the health hazards of obesity. The hazards of obesity are linked to increased risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes (high blood sugar), high blood pressure, certain cancers, and other chronic conditions, furthermore the WHO warns that obesity is linked with higher risk for several serious health conditions, such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, asthma, and arthritis.. Warning that it has a negative impact on the economy, due to a severe increase in healthcare spending, social welfare spending, and more people leaving the workforce to tend to medical related problems. The graph below portrays the US obesity rate with other countries.
