The U.S. Statistical Abstract has things to tell us; will we listen?

WASHINGTON — You may think that the last place to find a portrait of a nation is a book full of numbers. But turn to page 673 of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, and you find these intriguing figures. About three-quarters of Americans (76.1 percent in 2007, to be exact) get to work by driving alone. Only 10.4 percent carpool, while 4.9 percent use public transportation and 2.8 percent walk. On average, Americans spend 25.3 minutes commuting each way. The state with the longest commuting time is New York, at 31.5 minutes; the states with the shortest are North and South Dakota, at about 16 minutes, followed closely by Montana and Nebraska, at 17.6.

I'm an avid fan of the stat abstract, published annually by the Census Bureau, because it tells so much so quickly. The just-out 2010 edition bulges with information. For me, the stat abstract is often the place to start a story because it substitutes evidence for speculation. How do we compare with other countries? Sometimes favorably; sometimes not. Being optimistic, Americans commit suicide at fairly low rates, 10.2 for every 100,000 people in 2004, less than the 11.9 average for all industrial countries or Japan's 20.3 and France's 15.1. Food is cheaper here than almost anywhere else. In 2007, only about 6.9 percent of U.S. consumer spending went for food at home; Germans spent more (11.4 percent), as did Italians (14.5 percent) and Mexicans (24.2 percent). On the other hand, low food prices may contribute to Americans' obesity. In 2006, about 34 percent of U.S. adults were judged obese, triple France's rate (10.5 percent) and four times Switzerland's (7.7 percent).

The United States may be the birthplace of feminism, but that's not obvious from global figures. In 2009, women were 16.8 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives. In other national legislatures, women did better. For Canada, the comparable figure was 22.1 percent; for the Netherlands, 41.3 percent. The United States was nearly on a par with Uzbekistan's 17.5 percent.

Considering today's economic slump, America may seem a land where progress has died. Not so. The stat abstract offers many counterexamples.

Crime is one. Two decades ago, governments seemed helpless against a rising tide of murders, assaults and drug deals. Then crime began to subside. From 1993 to 2007, murders dropped from 25,000 to 17,000, and robberies from 660,000 to 445,000. Crime rates per 100,000 declined more because the population rose 16 percent over the same period. There is no consensus as to why.