Over the past few years, I've encountered various statistics that ruined my day, so to spread the pain, I've collected a few here.  Let's start with:

1. The nuclear family fades in the USA:

According to a Pew Research study, the United States has the highest number of children living in single-parent households.  Almost one-fourth (23%) of children in the U.S. under the age of 18 live with one parent and no other adult, which is the highest in the world.

2. Astronomical debt:

Our national debt in 2021 was over 28 trillion dollars.  This was 122% of GDP.  That ratio is important because investors worry about default when the debt-to-GDP ratio is greater than 77% — that's the tipping point.  To give you an idea of how big a trillion is, the sun is less than half a trillion feet away from the Earth.

3. Tens of millions can't read:

More than 30 million adults in the United States cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third-grade level.

4. But our competitors can read:

China in 2015 awarded 1.2 million bachelor's degrees in science and engineering, according to the National Science Foundation, six times the number in the United States, and the absolute number of Chinese graduates, as well as the ratio of Chinese to American graduates, have grown since then.

5. We're not having kids:

America's total fertility rate fell in 2020 to just 1.67 births per female, the lowest in history, and well below the replacement level of 2.1.

6. And those of us who do have kids are often the poorest:

In 2017, the birth rate in the United States was highest in families that had under 10,000 U.S. dollars in income per year, at 66.44 births per 1,000 women.  As the income scale increases, the birth rate decreases, with families making 200,000 U.S. dollars or more per year having the lowest birth rate, at 43.92 births per 1,000 women.

7. On Elections: A conservative voting bloc disappearing:

In 1960, 88.6% of the U.S. population was white.

In 2020, that share had shrunk to 61.6% white.  That might explain why California was a reliably Republican state until 1992 (aside from 1964) but has voted for Democratic presidents since then.  But demographics can't explain this rapid change.  From a 2018 article: "Among those aged 18 to 29, support for capitalism has plunged 12 percentage points in just two years.  Among that age group, 51% say they have positive feelings about socialism, compared to just 45% for capitalism."

8. But we're lonely:

A poll of 1,254 adults aged 18 and older found that 27 percent of Millennials have no close friends, 25 percent have no "acquaintances," and 22 percent — or 1 in 5 — have no buddies at all.

9. The Pentagon can't find recruits because:

In a report from the Heritage Foundation, "The Looming National Security Crisis: Young Americans Unable To Serve In the Military," we find that 71 percent of young Americans between 17 and 24 are ineligible to serve in the military — that is 24 million of the 34 million people of that age group.  The reasons:

First up are health problems, particularly obesity.  Twenty-seven percent of young Americans are too overweight to enter the military.  Various other physical factors — vision, conditions like asthma and diabetes, and mental illness — prohibit others from joining.

About 10 percent of possible recruits have criminal records that prohibit them from joining the armed forces.

A third reason is inadequate education.

Now here's a statistic for woke people who complain about microaggressions:

 The top ten countries for modern-day versions of slavery are:

1. India - 7,989,000
2. China - 3,864,000
3. North Korea - 2,640,000
4. Nigeria - 1,386,000
5. Iran - 1,289,000
6. Indonesia - 1,220,000
7. Congo (Democratic Republic of) - 1,045,000
8. Russia - 794,000
9. Philippines - 784,000
10. Afghanistan - 749,000

Nor is the USA free of modern versions of slavery.  According to Ron Soodalter, "in the United States, it [slavery] has reached epidemic proportions.  Victims are trafficked here from at least thirty-five countries and are held in bondage — and under the radar — in every state, working at a variety of jobs.  They are of all races, all types, all ethnicities, sharing in common only the inability to leave. ... Slavery is all around us, yet most of us are unaware.

10. We enjoy ourselves too much:

We've had 700,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. since 2000.

Graphic credit: Nick Youngson, CC BY-SA 3.0 license.