Non-Competitive Elections [227 -2]

Highlighted areas indicate those countries that are democratic in name only. Dictatorships, communist states, and military states either ban popular elections, disregard their results, or hand pick the candidates. Minimal red tape indicates a flawed democracy, the median amount indicates hybrid regimes, and the most red tape indicates authoritarian regimes. Flawed or corrupt representative democracies often do no better at generating competitive elections.

Infant Mortality [171]

Infant mortality is a good indicator of a population's well-being. In areas shaded dark red, one out of five children did not live beyond the age of five in the year 2000. In white areas, the mortality is less than 2%. Reducing infant mortality in one of the UN's MDGs (Millennium Development Goals)

Soil Degradation [169]

Soil degradation is brought on by several factors, mostly predisposition for desertification, acid rain, need for fuelwood and food needs which are beyond the soil's capacity to support. This globe shows only areas where the population’s food needs lead to overexploitation and subsequently to soil degradation.

Labor Migration [166]

This world is divided into richer and poorer countries. Highlighted countries are considered rich, as the personal income averages more than US $2,500/year. Anybody making less is part of the rest, the poor. Accordingly, there is a migration from poorer to richer countries. Inconsistent definitions of labor migration, and the untrackable nature of illegal migration has resulted in a scarcity of data on the subject. Arrows shown represent flows of at least 50,000 migrants in a given year between 1986 and 2003 as noted by the International Labor Organization.