>Er, is there a point you are trying to make? It's after 3 here and I need coffee.

The statistics we're discussing here are about the dozen or so most developed countries, which happen to be USA, Canada, Japan and European Union. It was Walter who brought it up while you were discussing Eu vs US, but the context of the statistics is not Eu vs US, it is top dozen developed countries.

And then you pull in the rest of the Europe to make yourself feel better. To make the playing field level, I suggest you also pull the rest of the Americas, then compare averages.