How Do Europe & The United States Compare?
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- čas přidán 5. 05. 2024
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▶ In this video I take a look at a few maps and statistics that allow us to compare The United States with Europe in a number of factors!
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Which other countries should I compare to each other?
Japan and China
PRC and ROC
pls do a second part ( love your videos)
Czech Republic and Slovakia
africa and london
The reason people can drive at such a young age in the US is because driving is a necessity in many of those western states. There’s no public transportation in rural South Dakota, so you have drive to do simple things.
There's piss poor publoc transportation in most major cities as well. Especially in newer western ones that have boomed since the end of WW2.
Also in rural areas, driving is related to work needs. Many young children work on farms and need the license - not only to go place to place, but also to operate some equipment
@@philipdillon83 there is a simple reason - public transport is efficient in areas of condensed population and interconnected by reliable rail. There is no economic principle for mass public transit in cities that don’t have these characteristics
But in some European countries you can drive at a younger age if you arent alone in the car.
U can drive in some European countries at similar ages like in the US
Driving is one of most symbolic icon of the US and it’s quite fun, the only shortcoming is transit in rural areas are either bad or just not present due to much of the things that happened back in the 40s as they rose in popularity
“Sunshine” and “hours of daylight” are not synonymous. Sunny days, or days of sunshine, refers to days when you literally see the sun, as opposed to gray, overcast, or otherwise cloudy/rainy days. Northern Europe appears to have more cloudy/rainy days that the US has on a whole.
why did you tell them that? Imagine if this simple idea had remained a mystery forever to Mr. Knowledge!
But also with "hours of daylight" his assumption would be wrong. During a year it's roughly the same at any point on the globe. But at the equator it's a bit less then at the poles.
@@FluttershyHash how do you come to that conclusion? In northern Alaska you can get days where the sun doesn't set, but you also get day of no sunlight. But is that equal? Wouldn't logic tell you that the most sunlight is given between the tropics, thus there definition. So closer to the equator would give more sunlight through out the whole year?
That is correct. That's why Arizona has so many hours of daylight, not just because we are further south, but our climate. Even on most of our "rainy" days we see the sun half the day. That's why/where old hotels in Yuma, AZ would give free boarding on the "days the sun don't shine"
I live in an area that is overcast sometimes for MONTHS on end. We literally do not have sunshine for a good deal of November-March in a typical weather year. As a kid I honestly thought “gray” WAS a version of sky color, same as blue or black. I didn’t realize until i was maybe 9 years old that when I was seeing completely gray “skies” I wasn’t actually seeing the sky. So, I cannot equate hour of sunshine with hours of daylight. Daylight is when the sun is “up” but we only have sunshine if at some point you can actually find the sun in the sky.
Back in the 70’s, when I lived in Italy, I bought wine at 9. My parents would send me down to the local store to pick up a bottle of wine for them.
That's stil very much a thing in Italy. Legal age is enforced only in places where alcohol is consumed (i.e. a pub or a bar) but not in supermarkets where alcohol is sold by the bottle.
@@DarioCastellarin Thanks. It’s been a long while since I was 18. LOL
Haha I am from Denmark, and as a kid in the 90s I was send to the store to buy beers and cigerates and in return I got a few kroner to buy candy. Age restrictrion is a rather new thing.
@@TheBarser Same here in the netherlands, untill quite recently children could buy anything in the shop, and in the eighties, at ourteen years old I could buy alcohol sigarettes and hashish, now phor these things people have to show an ID
@@klaasdeboer8106 It was much more simple back in the days
8:00 those maps are measuring two different things. the US’ is measuring % of 18-34 year olds living at home while Europe’s is measuring 25-34 year olds.
that’s why america looks so much higher than western europe, it’s taking into account the massive amount of young people who stay at home from 18-25
the goal of this video is to make the US look bad. we would appreciate it if you would stop pointing out the ways that we skewed the data to do so.
@@bigploppa154 ? why? wouldn’t you rather have a more factual video
@@han9488 because we hate the US and dont want to hear anything positive about it
Yeah and on the europe map you see on the left side that usa has 13.9% for that data
I think you should have focused more on either Europe as a continent or the E.U because the video flips between talking about the E.U and Europe making it a bit confusing
Well the majority of European countries are in the EU. I don't think the EU and the remainder of Europe would differ that much.
(Could be wrong idk.)
@@williamsmeds1368 outside of EU is way poorer
@@eVill420 Not really. Some of the poorest countries in Europe are in the EU, while some of the richest aren't.
@@eVill420 I ain't know that
@@eVill420 that's incorrect. Ask Norway or Switzerland.
For the living at parents house thing I think that has a lot to do with the group that was looked at, 18-34 and 25-34 is a big difference
I totally agree because on the European map it said 13.9% of people in the U.S. aged 25-34 live at their parents house
@@dilligan23 also also people Between 18-25 are mostly in college but their official address (for easier management) is still their family's adress. on my case I rented an appartment in the capital (I grow up in the rural areas) when I started working but my adress would still be my parent's, only when I got a definive house did I updated my adress. most of the people I know around my age did the same as me even when we do the sensus the question is the "fiscal adress".
Yeah I agree. These two maps shouldn't have been compared
Yeah ,for France ,50% of 18-29 years old still live at their parents house .
Who tf moving out at 18 lol
In Italy we tend to live with our parents for longer, but the numbers may be lower than suggested. If you go to university in a different city, you won't change your residential address because families benefit from fiscal advantages (university fees are deductible and some universities will lower the amount your fees, depending on the number of people living in your family unit). So you're *domiciled* somewhere, but stats only record your residential address for fiscal purposes. In addition to that, we tend to own our properties. Rents are high in some cities (Rome, Milan, Venice, Bologna and Florence) but quite low in other cities like Turin and Trieste, so that also plays a factor. That being said, the main problem in Italy is youth unemployment & the high number of NEETS. But again, this varies from region to region. Southern Italy has very high unemployment rates (Sicily 17,8% in Q4 2020, Campania 17,2% and Calabria 16,5%), so people are less likely to move out if they have no money. In the North it's a bit different: unemployment in Lombardy (where 1/6 of the Italian population lives) stood at 5,3% in Q4 2020. The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the North East of Italy: in the Trento province (4,3%) and Veneto (4,7%) respectively.
When you compared armies you forgot that Finnish army is about 280k and with reserve 900k.
@@benchoflemons398 no it doesn’t, the draft isn’t a thing anymore, the US army is 100% volunteer.
@@benchoflemons398 On January 27, 1973, the Department of Defense announced that it was suspending the draft, and the Military Selective Service Act expired that June. What you are talking about is the selective service system that can be avoided by conscientious objection, simply not agreeing with war or religious reasons, thats not a draft mate
@@benchoflemons398 that’s 👏 not 👏 a👏 draft my boy, South Korea has an actual draft. You registering doesn’t suddenly equals a draft.
@@benchoflemons398 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
@@ericktellez7632We are a volunteer army until we get into anything serious, but even with us still being volunteer, it's still a draft, we just don't actively use it, but can be in case of emergency. South Korea just actively uses it as norm, where we don't, just different systems for it since we are not currently bordering a country such as North Korea. They can 100% call you into the military if they so choose at anything they deem important enough, you are basically just untrained reserve.
About young people living with parents in Slovakia - it's very much cultural.
Firstly, renting isn't really a thing around here and only people like workers or groups of students in universities rent, mostly in big cities. Those who do, while technically living out of home, are still registered on their parent's adress until they buy something of their own. This may take a while since banks only rent to people with long term job contracts which usually happens after 3-5 years after the person starts working.
However, the majority of young people lives with their parents at least until they have their own children, at which point the old place may be a little cramped so they move out. There is also the thing with many of our houses build with the intention of being multigenerational, that is housing 2 or more nuclear families at the same time. People use this as an insurance that a) there are always grandparents looking after grandkids and b) once grandparents are old, there is at least 1 child (now probably middle aged) to take care of them. This is especially common in rural areas and we have more than half of all people living in villages so...
Yeah one thing to consider is culture, in the US it's highly frowned apon to live with your parents, and getting out of the nest is seen as a necessity, while in Europe some places have more tight and complex family structures
@@plebulus4355 you are right
The rest of the undeveloped world operates like this.
@@vardekpetrovic9716 so you are old from 40-90. Thats longer than the rest of the age percentiles combined. 🤦🏾♂️
Wait, it's not like this elsewhere in the world? It all just sounds so reasonable I didn't even think it's a cultural thing
Many climate factors. One example I want to point out is humidity. You could see that the Southwest USA has a lot of sunlight. Even though California is coastal, the air in that area as a whole is very dry, meaning that there is likely less average cloud cover. Wet forests and water from lakes fill the northeast, giving them more frequent cloud coverage
why is humidity lower in southwest usa?
@@koseku3 because of the sea, there are ocean current
@@koseku3 California is on the hot side of a ocean crurent, Europe is too in the hot side of a ocean current it's the reason why it's warmer in Europe than in the us even though they're in the same latitude
@@Silence_stp i dont get it. i thought it was because mountains block clouds. i am from turkey and all coast are very humid in turkey but inner anatolia is very dry due to mountains around inner anatolia and high altidude of inner anatolia
@@koseku3 it's not a simple thing, there are many factors that make a place dry or wet
An interesting fact to note, The travel distance between Paris and Moscow, is shorter then the travel distance between Chicago and L.A.
And the travel distance from Chicago to LA ist shorter than Lissabon to Tromso? What is your point?
I think a comparison of the benefits that governments provide in Europe versus the United States would be interesting. I know for example that yes family income is higher in the U.S. but that is impacted significantly by having to purchase your own health insurance. Lots of vacation and family leave are also common in Europe, etc. So there are more collective benefits to living in European society. Just thought an examination of those differences might be interesting.
Most health insurance in the US is actually through the employer. For instance employers pay an additional $1.2 trillion for employees and their families healthcare winch is on top of salaries. All individuals pay about $800 Billon so American employees technically received an additional $400 Billon for employers thats considered salary.
Why is the suicide rate higher in Europe then?
@@buy_large_mansions that has nothing at all to do with European benefits 😂
@@olila7713 yes it does.😂
@@buy_large_mansions , not sure about that, nor am I sure about what you include in "Europe".
But one thing is for sure and that is that the murder rate is higher in the USA.
I can say as a Greek that the reason for the % of people living *at home* is in fact mostly cultural and less economic (which still play's a role but not a huge one) . Families here are much closer together than you might think .
I live in Canada and the Greeks here are similar. Very family oriented and the kids stay with the parents until marriage/kids usually. Its the way it should be and its becoming more common amongst other cultures too.
@@m.dewylde5287 Yes I totally agree. It's very good for youngsters to learn to manage on their own and take responsibility for their own mistakes. In Norway young people share apartment with friends or rent a room in a family apartment together with people they don't know.
That's both good and bad, it depends
@@gumzy3000 well greeks outside greece are more stuck together than the ones inside it because its unusual
Yep, we are similar. I’m Turkish and our culture is close
Hours of sunlight/ year majorly depends on the amount of rain, sincd rainclouds cover the sun. This is why the oceanic regions of europe such as northern france england and the netherlanda have a lower amount of sunlight
The netherlands do not border an ocean
Latitude has very little direct effect. Short winter days are balanced by long summer days
@@lcemobile1518 *does, and The Netherlands technically borders an ocean, because of the Dutch Antillies, but the mainland only borders the North Sea.
@@lcemobile1518 yes it does :)
@@brodoxl It borders France also but it's in saint martin island
Obrigado pelos seus vídeos. They are always interesting to see. I m looking forward to more videos to come!
Hours of sun definitely has a direction correlation with weather. The southwest U.S. is a desert and has very little rain resulting in a lot of sun time. Europe being on the other end of the gulf Stream definitely plays an impact on their climate. U.S. also has two mountain ranges with a jet stream that comes out of the west and goes through both while Europe's Alps going across instead of up and down like in the U.S.
The southwest does have large desert areas, but it's not all desert. The following climate types can also be found in the southwest: Mediterranean, arid/semi-arid, humid continental/subtropical, oceanic, and alpine/subarctic/tundra (at the highest elevations).
Hours of sun is a combination of latitude, average weather, elevation, and mountains. Consider that a village in a valley that runs north to south between two tall mountains east and west of it will receive less sunlight than standing at the peak of either due to mountains blocking it. Even if the mountains weren't blocking the valley (i.e. the valley was running east to west), the total daily sunlight for the valley will be lower than at the peaks. You can see 2 sunsets at the Burj Khalifa by watching sunset at the base and then taking the elevator to the top.
Calculating sunrise/sunset times is actually super complicated because of that... Simply changing altitude will change it (My sunrise/sunset is different in my 4th floor apartment than my 1st floor neighbors below me), so when you see times you're usually seeing an average based on a median elevation with no obstructions. Maps like that were most likely made in a different manner, by actually collecting data at physical locations and averaging it (which would help account for the weather variable as well as the elevation/obstruction variables)
1€ = $1.07 … not $1.7
And sunlight hours are not really linked to latitude, but to climate (cloud cover or not, fog…).
Moreover, even the number of daylight hours (moment between sunrise and sunset) over a full year is roughly the same everywhere. On the equator, the length of the day will be almost identical (and about 12h) year round. The further away from the equator, the bigger the day length variation between summer and winter. But it averages out.
Messing up the exchange rate that much isn't a little mistake. More like, "the person making the video has no experience with at least one of those two currencies."
He actually SAID 1.07, but 1.7 was written...
About the clouds it is much about the gulf stream which is also why europe is so warm compared to its rather low altitude.
I was stationed in Germany in the military for roughly 3 years right after high school during my USAF enlistment....then returned to Germany for another 5 years as a DoD civilian shortly thereafter; after college. During my cumulative total 8 years there, I don't recall anyone ever checking IDs to purchase alcohol, or to get into the bars/clubs. There were technically "rules" in Baden-Württemberg and Hesse--like after 2300 hours anyone under 18 needed to leave the bar/club/pub--but from what I've seen, it was never enforced. And this was as recent as 2019.
because many of the laws of the European states work as a guarantee. For example "you can't do this" doesn't mean you can't do it anyway. But if someone finds out about it, then a sanction goes into effect, but normally no one checks in advance. This applies to almost all fields, except of course the most serious crimes.
No one will ever ask you "how old are you?" to buy something, with very rare exceptions. And if you think about it, even driving a car can be done without being 18, just you don't have to get caught.
The point is: European laws are almost never absolute prohibitions, but protections and guarantees. Indeed, this is how the French envisioned the world in 1789.
Edit: the same applies to pedestrian crossings, which are not always respected in europe, and no one has ever received a penalty for crossing the road outside the pedestrian crossing, while in america it is rather taboo.
They only check it if you look way too young. But I bought Alcohol at 12-13 without anyone asking.
Im German.In a bar a 12-13 year old gets normally never beer or wine .Its a big risk,cost mutch mutch money if the police c this.A 13-14 years old ,look like 15-16 can have luck.Beer and Wine is legal 16+ .
At smaller beer fests ,at lakes and so , or smaller music events 14-15 year old have a 85% chance no one check the age.Start drinking beer is normal in Germany at age 14.Most start at 15.Start drinking harder stuff like Vodka or Whiskey is normal at 16.Legal at 18.Most 16-19 year old teens drink about 90% beer and 10% hard stuff.
I don't know how recently you lived in Germany but here in the UK there has been a lot of tightening up as regards checking up on under-18s buying alcohol in the last 10 years or so. I have seen people challenged in supermarkets because the retailers can now receive hefty fines for selling alcohol to minors. One of my friends was challenged in a supermarket as being under age a couple of years ago when he was 34 - his wife thought this was hilarious!
5:38 In Portugal u can buy any alcohol when you are 18, there's not any alcohol that u can only buy at 20. The info in the video is incorrect!
U used to be able to buy beer and wine at 16 and the rest at 18 some years ago but now everything is 18. (Some people can still buy beer and soft drinks without them asking your id, so they dont care as much when it comes to lower % drinks, unless you are buying a lot of it.)
Suggestions for Part two
1. No. of National parks.
2. Avg. Size of a house.
3. Percentage of land dedicated for monuments.
4. No. Of ports/air ports.
5. Comparison of water ways?
these are really interesting suggestions!! now im definitely curious about those :p
Good ideas! Thanks
National parks are not really a thing in most European countries
@@bas13161j I ain't even know that
I suggest to include a tourism comparison.
4:45 Driving in the US is allowed at 16, and earlier depending on how young you are allowed to get a learner's permit. The map data you are looking at is "Unsupervised Driving". That is the difference in the numbers. Where I live (California), you can go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and get your learner's permit at 15. This is considered "supervised driving" since you must have someone over 21 with a valid driver's license in the vehicle with you if you are on a public road while you are learning, getting caught driving solo will get you blocked from getting your license until you are 18. At 16, you can test and get your license with the DMV and be able to drive unsupervised, but if you are going to drive, you are not allowed to have anyone under 18 (a minor) in the vehicle with you unless there is someone 18+ (a legal adult) there as well. At 18, it's completely unrestricted as you are considered an adult and responsible for everything you do. In New Jersey's case, even though you can legally drive at 16, they still want someone who is an adult in the car with you "supervising" for an extra year.
Idaho, Montana, North/South Dakota, and Arizona are pretty empty states population wise, so people are a lot more spread out, and lots of farming occurs there, so younger 'drivers' are allowed to drive unsupervised on public streets, considering many times it would likely be either slow moving farm tractors or an otherwise mostly unused road. In Arizona's case, dirt bikes or quads or something out in the desert is also extremely common and supervision is likely on their own rather than sharing the same seat, so to avoid technicalities in the law causing problems that are unnecessary, you get a lower age. South Carolina, I would assume it's also because much of the land is farming like the others, but someone from there would know better than I.
cant say for other country but in france you can start to learn how to drive at 15 (only rules ) but after that you can drive with an adult who has a drivers license but at 18 you can drive alone
This thing of supervised driving is really common, here in Germany you can drive with supervision from 17 and without one year later, though you can drive mopeds or something like that with 16 I think, don't know the exact rules
Americans: You can Drink at 21
7 year old me in czechia: How About I Do Anyway?
The age restriction thing of driving, consent, alchohol and other stuff in the US has always been weird and mind boggling thing to me XD
But the map says US has LESS age restrictions on driving than Europe does.
@@Xezlec thats exactly the point. I know it has to do with less public transport in the states but its wild that americans can drive at 16, own guns at such a young age but cant buy alcohol before 21. In germany for example you can drink legally at 16
@@cleantube8014 im more weirded out by how available guns are in the states than anything else, and also 16 might be young but there'a a point to be made that having access to something like that prevents a lot of illegal drinking and giving kids stronger alcohol
@@tonttu7979 the gun culture comes from the 2nd amendment. even though i think its a good idea to have guns accepted in our culture, people do get them way too easily
Warm greetings and much love from France to all my European brothers and sisters and all our US American friends ! ❣️
That is awfully cheerful. Just a warning, this is just because I am extremely pissed at our 'European Brothers' at the moment, and I need to vent and show the real face of the EU. Please don't let it kill your optimism. Don't read further if you don't feel like it.
There are EU regulations about the amount of Natural Parks (Natura 2000) a country needs to have. Moreover, there are strict regulations about the amount of nitrogen products companies and farmers can produce near those Natural Parks, for environmental reasons. My country, The Netherlands, is extremely densily populated, and almost all the area is used for farms, companies and houses. That all produces way too much nitrogen products, ammonia etc., at least according to the EU. The weird part is that less densily populated countries like Germany and France don't have that problem, the EU does not account for population density whatsoever.
The Netherlands knew that, and went easy with those rules. Until 2019, when some environmental radicals abused our justice system. From that day no new projects that produced nitrogen could be started. That mend no more farms, factories, but also infrastructure and houses. It brought our society to a standstill, and caused a gigantic housing crisis. Today the government has decided to solve the problem by disowning around 50% of the farmers in the country. All their hard work, farms that have been in families for centuries gone.
The outcry is enormous of course, all the farmers will besiege the capital, governmental buildings etc in the next days with their big machines, they have done that before but on a much smaller scale. And it's not the first time we get screwed over by the EU, they already destroyed our fishing fleet too. One of these days the situation is gonna boil over, and the majority of people will want to leave the EU. As an Economist I am not happy with it, but the EU is slowly destroying my country, that is gonna get a response.
I get there are environmental issues we need to fix, but not like this. Not by completely destroying the lives of thousands of families, while the big companies get a free pass, and masses of people enjoy their polluting flights to luxury vacations. I am sorry, but I am so angry, I had to show the real face of the European elite that destroys the smaller countries with their idiotic and way to general rules.
@@janvisser4132 They were greeting Americans and fellow Europeans, not praising the EU for being a fantastic and unstoppable union with no problems whatsoever. I'm very sorry about what you said, but you don't have to respond in that way.
Bonjour la France❣
Bonjour, greetings from Germany. 🇲🇫🇩🇪
oh please - the average american knows nothing about europe, and doesn't care about europe - those that do will mock the french, italians, greeks, etc, and only somewhat care about germany and the uk. anyway, nice of you to reach out and say hi
the reason a lot more people in europe live at home with their parents still after they've turned 18 is because it's more of an american culture to move out right at that age. i can't speak for all but in other cultures you usually move out when you get married and moving out isn't as rushed - it's not frowned upon and it's normal, doesn't have to do with finances
Living in the UK, I live with my parents and my two older brothers who now work full time and now their wives live and work here. They want to move out eventually, but they're too fond of where we live to rush anything. I do feel a little under pressure to do the same, but it's mostly from watching too much American and Japanese media. Most people I tell about this situation or I read about are happy to have big, functioning family.
Things have definitely been changing in the U.S, but it is for economic reasons.
It is a little about The finances lets not be lyin
@@itshenry8977 Also, but not always. I've literally seen kids in the US do 3 jobs and almost live in the street just because they had the "need" to move out of their parent's house. It makes no sense, just do a regular job, get a degree if you want and save the money while you can. This "gtfo my house at 18" culture seems widespread in the US, at least from our point of view.
@@nero9506 it's really a case by case situation. Culturally I think nearly every young adult would like their own place, but many financially can't afford it so they are forced to live with their parents during and/or after college. On the flip side, there are others from homes where it's either inconvenient or unhealthy for them to stay with their parents any longer and those are the people who would do anything possible to move out at 18, including working 3 jobs. I even had some high school friends who got their own apartment at 17 because of some domestic abuse situation. They worked crazy hours and could barely afford a car but left anyway
In Portugal at the age of 18 you can buy and drink any alcoholic beverage. There are no restrictions on the type of drink. In Portugal you can also get a driver's license for motorcycles up to 50cm3 at the age of 14 as long as you have parental authorization and school performance. You can also get a license for motorcycles up to 150cm3 or microcar at age 16 as long as you have parental consent. Those who get this license at 16, when they are 18 years old, they no longer need to take a theoretical exam of the highway code (because it is the same), they only need to take a practical driving test by car, and the license is cheaper and is much faster.
A little correction for for my country (Germany): you are allowed to drive with 17 with an adult and with 18 you can drive alone. The election age depends on the election from 16 to 18. And with 16 you can buy beer and wine and liquids with 18. Oh and you can consume it in public.
That's why it said unsupervised driving
A 17 year old can get the driver licence,for driving allone, if a car is needed to drive to the work place .If the car way is 30min and with train/bus 2 h ,or so .
The US definitely has an advantage in tanks driven by cats.
The map in the thumbnail is a bit odd... Czechia and Slovakia are one country again.
Kaliningrad has been annexed by Poland. And vojvodina declared independence from Serbia.
Czechoslovakia
I don't see the problem 🤷 that map is clearly better than reality
kaliningrad is part of Russia
And Scotland is separated from UK :))
And the UK is part of an EU comparison video
lovely comparison, nicely done!
In Switzerland you can buy cigarettes in some shops at age 16 but they are mostly like little village shops. And from canton to canton they are other age limits, some of the cantons don’t even have an age limit, so technically you could buy cigarettes at age 10. Supermarkets and shops in rural areas sell cigarettes at age 18. Beer and wine is purchasable at age 16 in mostly every canton of Switzerland and the high percentage stuff like whiskey or brandy you can buy at age 18. Fun fact: to import cigarettes into Switzerland from other countries, when you come by plane for example, you only have to be 17.
Lmao 😂, I was in Paris and got wine 🍷
And handed them my ID and they just looked at me. “Why you giving me this “
I think one of the reasons why the US gets more sunlight is that there are more clouds in Europe because of the gulf stream
europe also has significantly worse air pollution. im no environmental science major but id assume that could affect things
@@bigploppa154 no it doesn't, air pollution doesn't form clouds atnall, it's not as bad as in Beijing for example. The real reasons for less sunlight are clouds because there are simply more clouds in general over europe
@@liszters8935 fair enough. however i cant tell if your “no it doesnt” is in reference to me stating that europe has worse air pollution or suggesting that it may affect sunlight. if it was the former, im not wrong, europe absolutely has significantly worse air pollution.
The gulf stream also affects the East Coast of the US(hence why the beaches there are so warm). I think this is why the East Coast gets comparable sunlight to European nations like Spain that share the same latitude.
@@bigploppa154 Go visit Finland or some other Northern European countries. You might just get to know what clean air is for the first time.
In multiple countries in Europe like the Netherlands you can learn how to drive at the age of 16, but at 17 you are allowed to drive but with a special person until you are 18
Part 2 please!! great video
Elevation and topography have a lot to do with it. My dad grew up in Harlan, Kentucky. Despite being in the midwestern US, Harlan hollers often only have visible sun from 10am to 3pm due to the mountains that surround the valley community on both the east and west.
5:26 i'm austrian and with 16 you can vote by each election from the major, chancellor to the president and idk if i dont understand the first map but also in austria you can get the driving license when you reach the 17th age
Also in Germany, but you have to drive with an adult with a driver's license, if I remember right. I assume that it's the same in Austria.
As others mentioned, the map for the US and Europe are probably for unsupervised driving.
@@perry5062 german: also bei uns ist es so das man mit 15,5 jahren anfangen kann und dann die fahrstunden mit einem erwachsen fahren muss aber ab 17 kann man schon alleine fahren
English: in austria we could start the license when you are 15,5 years old, then you have to drive with an adult to reach 3000km to take the exam and if you finish the license(and be 17 years old) you can drive without an adult
About voting age: In Germany one can vote for the "Landtag" at the age of 16. There are a lot of discussions at the moment to even lower the age limit for federal voting also to 16 years.
Next thing babies will be allowed to vote in your country
That's weird. 99% of
One of the major difference between the two is that in Europe words are spelt and pronounced correctly 😆
Interestingly in the UK, for Westminster elections the voting age is 18, but for Welsh Parliament (and Scottish I think?) the voting age is 16, so it varies dependent on which national parliament.
This was also noted on the map, yeah
The Tories are terrified of letting 16 and 17 year olds vote since they are the kids who are going to inherit the country that is currently being raped silly by Dishi Richi and the Eton billionaires club.
I'm from South Dakota. We can drive that early, but you have to drive with another licensed driver for the first 6 months. It was originally so that the farm kids could drive the machinery to help around the farm.
Nice. Which place do u think is better?
Miami or Europe?
@@arolemaprarath6615 100% Miami, because of Florida man
@@arolemaprarath6615 For ordinary citizens to live there, most countries of Europe should be preferable to Miami, except for Hungary, Poland, Belarus, Turkey, Russia and sadly Ukraine right now.
Great video.
Respect!
This video might confuse a few people as some will not be aware that the UK is not part of the EU, but still part of the European continent.
23 European countries are not part of the EU. In western Europe Iceland, Norway, the UK, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Switzerland are not members. Further east you have Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine and many others.
From seattle area, the reason the Pacific Northwest gets less sun is because we constantly get clouds coming in from the ocean from October to may, what my family calls cave season.
South Dakota let’s you get people drive cause there’s so few people there, and often times states will allow kids 13 or younger to drive farm trucks on public roads to get from one section of a farm to another
Which one do u prefer? New York or Europe?
@@arolemaprarath6615 I’ve never lived In either can’t be a fair judge
@@josephharrison5639 if I'm honest, New York is just different. Tall gorgeous buildings is just amazing. Europe's buildings basically copied them afte New York's architecture
@@arolemaprarath6615 honestly I’d rather live in the middle of nowhere
@@josephharrison5639 Where do you live? 😊
8:40 - It's odd, the maps showing the percent of young people living home... The Europe map has a notation for USA at 13.9%, which is far different than what the USA map portrays. Edit - I just noticed that the USA map includes 18-24 year olds and the Europe map does not. So not an apples to apples comparison.
18 Includes high school students, and almost all high school students are still living at home.
He's not making these maps. I think he found the most similar maps he could find for all of these subjects. I agree that he should've mentioned this pretty big difference in age gap though.
18-34
The striped areas in at least Scandinavia at 5:39 concerning alcohol means that there is different age limits for alcohol depending on where you buy it. In Sweden you can buy alcohol in the store for "home usage" at 20 while you can buy alcohol at bars and such establishments as early as 18. One of the more common arguments for this in Sweden is that when you are buying alcohol at bars and restaurants that you cant bring out outside the establishment and the servers can judge if the customers are to drunk or not. While the higher age limit to purchase in store among things is to prevent younger people from getting access due to siblings buying out for them as just a few years older siblings are unlikely to do so compared to siblings just a year older.
2:00 Most of Europe is on the same latitudes as Canada, the Mediterranean is on the same latitudes as the US.
So regarding yearly hours of sunlight it makes sense.
A part of Northern Europe is in the arctic, with no night in the middle of Summer, and no day in the middle of Winter.
Both definitely have their pros and cons, but are both great places to call home.
Based
@@bughenifon7145 it’s true I am quite based lol
@DropkicktheDecepticon Europe is just as bad in most aspects, they may have better public transit, but that’s mainly because not as many people there own cars and all of their countries are much smaller so they’re not needed as much. Also if you think the US has a toxic culture, France and the Uk are just as bad if not worse. While our basic education is different than other places, it’s not necessarily bad, I’m doing extremely well currently and my good friend from Denmark says American education is leagues better than his. We’re also home to most of the world’s best collages. Our pollution though, I’ll give you that. California especially is extremely smoggy and we need to be better.. Also it’s not that we don’t matter until we turn 18, it’s mainly just a cultural thing and it’s very similar in the UK and EU, along with most of the developed world.
Sorry, I’m not trying to turn this into an argument I just wanted to share my side of the story.
@@PARK-sy3tf no
@DropkicktheDecepticon woah bucko do ur research our education is actually pretty good
2:06 interesting fact: the region of Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon in among the least sunny regions in the world, coming right after The Faroe Islands and Iceland. Yes, London is a sunnier place than coastal Cameroon. I'm not an expert but yeah, the weather there is almost constantly overcast.
Cap
@@bughenifon7145 yearly average sunshine hours in:
Malabo, Equatorial Guinea: 1,176
London, England: 1,633
Edinburgh, Scotland: 1,427 (even Scotland gets more sun than Equatorial Guinea!)
Tórshavn, Faroe Islands: 870 (lowest in the world)
Source: Wikipedia
@@mysteriousDSF I can vouch for the lack of sunlight in Tórshavn. Skin colours range from transparent to sickly pale, with the occasional boiled-lobster-red on the rare occasions the sun penetrates the cloud cover :D
And London is half as wet as Paris.
@@nicks40 I live in London, I work 5 days a week, so far I had to walk to or from work in the rain a total three times this year and it's August now.
great video - thanks - I love this
1. Seems to have left Alaska out of the hrs of son comparison, though theoretically it's hrs of sun may still average out higher with its very sort winter days being off set bay longer summer days
2. I think a surprisingly informative comparison point would be the level of autonomy of the constituent parts, as many fail to understand exactly how much say the states actually have, after all they still can have the right to have independent military's, and even in a limited manner partake in international diplomacy.
Voting age in the UK varies, in Wales most elections are now open to 16+
4:50, the reason south dakota is so low, at least to my understanding across the state line; is that its so farmers kids can run the tractors and other heavy machinery needed for farming
In Finland, we have compulsory military service and our reserve is 900 000. That's more than France, UK and Italy, the three top ranking militaries in this video, combined.
It also depends when it comes to the amount of sunlight in an area that the ocean currents play in a big factor too. The ocean currents on both sides of the Atlantic are different also compared too the Pacific. When hot or cold streams come our way. The geographical make up of the land (mountains, rivers, valleys) also determen where clouds (and rain) will appear, thus jeopradising the amount of Sunhours we get here in Europe.
It would be interesting to compare age of consent, because like here in Hungary it's too low, in some cases 12, but in most of the US it's unnecessarily high
12 being an age of consent? That is really messed up honestly
@@gumzy3000 If the older party is under 18 than the younger one can be above 12, in other cases it's 14, which is fairly common in Europe. Either way, it's almost always between people with similar ages, but 12 is definitely too low
The American progressives are always saying the USA should be more like Europe in all these different ways like universal healthcare and gun control. But the whole incident with Matt Gaetz shows that there seems to be one exception to that idea. Or maybe they just want to do anything they can to bash Republicans.
18+ is unnecessarily high???
@@user-rk3ds2hu9y yes, it is. We here have a saying: "until 15 you can after 15 you must😎😎"
In like half of Europe living with your parents is perfectly normal, since it's more common for people to live in a big house than an apartment or condo. Where I come from young people mostly live upstairs while their parents are usually downstairs. It's pretty much like having two or more apartments in one big house.
In Finland (and I believe in other Nordic countries as well) it's quite the opposite. People generally move away from their parents at 18 or 19, sometimes even at 15 or 16 if they go to a school that is far away from their parents' home. And as far as I know (I might be wrong though, I haven't looked up any statistics) people in here tend to rather live in one room apartments (or studios if you will) than share a bigger apartment with flatmates.
@@TzeiEm Interesting. Well, I guess 1000km of distance equates to a lot of cultural difference also.
I moved out when i was 20. So did my siblings. Im 23 now and i dont know anyone who still lives at home with their parents. Nordic as well.
@@TzeiEm I think Sweden has among the most single households in the world if you count per capita.....
Here in Denmark as you can see hardly anyone lives at home with there parrents. The reason is that you get money from the state when you study and this is significant higher if you dont live at home with your parrents.
Many people connect Europe and the USA with the term "western countries." But actually there are so many differences, as the vid shows. What is also a big difference is the way both handle with infrastructure and landuse and that european countries are way more efficient with (public) transport
Also in Europe there are a lot of poor countries
Yeah europe is very different. As a danish person I feel closer connected to most of the US than I do to most of eastern europe.
The western and eastern countries term actually stem from the cold war and the soviet border line. So all countries in Europe aren't considered "western". The eastern part is slowly catching up in infrastructure, you can still see the economical difference of east and west to this day. If we really are going to hair pin it, North America is technically "far west" and Asia is "far east". Africa, Oceania and South America being the odd balls where there is now "hard line" to define eastern and western.
For an Asian like me, Europe and the USA (also with Australia and New Zealand) looks under the same umbrella because of White people, Christianity, and highly developed countries
@@lemagnifique1573 I am sure a lot of white people also group all asians together
6:35 Finland has over 900,000 reserve strength and 280,000 wartime strength kind of weird that it's not depicted in this category
That's impressive - the US has only 1.1mil
@@Pokekid001 that’s the main army not reserves
900000 fit for military service,16-60,in case of a very long war. The Finland army has active only 28000+18000 reserve.
For comparison :
Germany :
185000 +30000 reserve activ.
About 33 million ,16-60,fit for military service in case of a very long war.
it is kinda interesting how similar one nation is to an entire continent.
The geography itself is mind blowing at best, it’s almost as large as the European continent without Russia added
Actually Europe is a peninsula an asian peninsula
@@Silence_stp North America is a South American peninsula, you just don't want to admit it
@@eVill420 thank you. its true
the anglosphere is bigger than russia.. just saying
Norway: Beer and wine at 18; alcohol stronger than wine at 20. Driving age also depends on size of vehicle: mopeds and slow tractors at 16, cars at 18, lorries and buses at 18 or 21 depending on education.
You assumed only latitude affected sunshine hours, but those aren't actually even related. The north has shorter days in the winter, but equally longer days in the summer. Think of the extremes, where the equator gets pretty much 12h days and 12h nights all year, while the poles get 6 month days and 6 month nights. That's a 50/50 split between day and night regardness of where you are.
The difference in warmth comes mainly from the angle between the sunshine and the ground, where the equator gets a lot more heat per area than the poles.
The sunshine hours is based on weather. More clouds means less sunshine.
Here in France, you mostly leave your parents home when you are able to have your own house or to rent one. And to be able to rent a housing, most of the time, you will need a permanent employment contract, pay several rents in advance as well as a large deposit, and it's even more difficult if you're not in couple. So it's sometimes more profitable to stay with your parents even if you are no longer studying.
And I must admit I am a bit surprised of how many people still believe god exists in the US, I always thought this was just in some southern states.
Do not forget how many people here came to the U.S. (or North America, in colonial times) specifically to escape religious persecution. I think that has something to do with why so many people here believe in some higher power. Me? As an American, I do not care whether God exists or not. I do not go around exclaiminng he does, nore do I exclaim he does not. What ever you believe, that's your business. Do not think you are better because you are an atheist. Do not think you are better because you are theist. In fact, don't talk religion or politics.
@@italia689 They didn't say that thought. They just said they were surprised at how many people believe in God.
6:08
Those are not the largest armies in Europe. For example Finland has over 900,000 reserve personnel, and Estonia 230,000. These are both very small countries with a total population of around 6,9 million people. Yet they have huge numbers in the reserve incase of war.
Finland & Estonia are just 2 examples. There are defenitely more European countries with big numbers.
Turkey has the second largest army in NATO for instance
Yeah not to mention he completely excluded Russia which if im correct is a part of Europe
Yeah, but those are reserve conscripts.
Probably not the most trained and motivated people depending on country.
He was talking about standing armies, reservists are not included.
@@gigachad6582 might be they dont actually have that many troops left right now...
This is a really good video!
To answer your question about sunlight days/hours per year. Being close to the Equator helps a bit yes, but in this case the most important factor is the amount of rain a place gets. The more rain equals more clouds (less sun). The less rain more sun. That is why the south west USA is so sunny because of its arid/semiarid climate.
In general, the amount of solar hours is largest at the tropics. It is there you find the big deserts. At the equator, expect to find a wetter climate, and tropical rain forests. For the climate in Europe, you should read about the Gulf Stream.
Those big desserts must be delicious.
@@jdb47games Sure, I have heard that cacti tastes good (if you're a camel)
I've been to the U.S. twice in my life (New England, then California and Arizona), and I enjoyed it each time. But there are two things that kept puzzling me; the tipping culture and the price tags that don't include the tax.
When I was in Greece I had to tip
people always call them mysteries but they are just so businesses can get away with lower price tags
@@tangledspoons1396 ... but only the untaxed portion goes to the business, so it's more honest.
@@nicks40 What's the difference? In EU just VAT tax is just inscribed on receipt and invoice. You also know what's the net and gross price.
But please, don't talk about differences between states in US. There are diffirences also in EU and don't cause difficulties, but enterprises are just obligated to show gross price.
@@jakubadamczyk1523 VAT is only inscribed on a VAT invoice. If it's just a receipt the VAT is not analysed out and people have no idea what items have included VAT and what items haven't. For example, strawberry flavour Nesquik has VAT, but chocolate flavour Nesquik doesn't. Chocolate biscuits have VAT but Jaffa Cakes don't. And so on.
objectively - without weather factors, yes everyone at any specific latitude will have identical "hours of sun", but more practically it can vary based on weather and terrain. Places with regularly thick cloud cover will have effectively less sun than a desert at an equivalent latitude. Also terrain can have an effect as a maintain top will have "more sun" than a valley.
Great video!
4:29 yes sir, I have reason to believe that the Vatican are most likely are in the blue percentage. I'm willing to go as far as to say that if there was a 100% color, the Vatican would apply to that one. Actually, bc the blue only goes up to 82%, the Vatican would literally be religious beyond the charts.
Well actually the it would be closer to 10% if anything the only ones that are "required" to be religious are the pope, the cardinals and the swiss guard for evenryone else it's optional. The optional includes diplomats, service staff and extended family which is the majority of the people that live in the vatican.
6:22 bro really said intelligence
I'm not saying all americansare stupid, but some adults in the us think that asia, south america or africa is a country.
I've found it pretty interesting that my state of Illinois is nearly on the same latitude as Portugal. And almost the same length too.
Another note on, to add onto what someone else mentioned about those living at home, is that the chart shows that the states in the US with the highest percentage of those living at home are also the most expensive states in the Union. Thus why more stay with their parents for longer. Its harder to get good paying jobs. Also not taken into account are those who left home, tried to rent (whether with roommates or not) and couldn't make it and thus moved back in with their parents.
I also note that a lot of the European countries that have the highest percentages, are cultures with strong family traditions. Meaning, living with one's family is either quite normal/expected (like children are expected to take care of the parents/aka stay close/live in). Whereas in the USA, its culturally expected that children leave to make lives of their own. Though, with prices having gotten worse all over the country, more and more people are forced to live with their parents.
California has a lot of mountain ranges which causes the rain shadow effect leading to dry climates
What I always find interesting is the correlation you can see between education, wealth, development etc. and religousness: the less wealthy, less educated and less developed a country, the more religious are the people in said country. Of the 114 countries reviewed by their religousness in the Gallup Poll, Bangladesh, Niger, Yemen, Indonesia and Malawi were leading the list in being the most religious, while Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, Japan and Hong Kong were leading in being the least religious. We can also see that trend on the maps of the USA and Europe shown here. The USA, being kind of very religious for a first world country, seems to be somewhat of an exception. Though, if I'm being honest, after taking a closer look behind that fancy facade, it doesn't really look like a typical first world country to me, compared to countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Switzerland and so on.
In question is the causality: are the people in those countries more religous, because their countries are less wealthy, less educated and less developed or are their countries less wealthy, less educated and less developed, because they are more religious and vice versa for the less religious ones?
Sunshine: Low numbers in most of europe probably because of the golf stream bringing warm water to the coasts all the way up to norway and a lot of humid air which follows the wind mostly blowing from west do east. And a little error: Euro - Dollar 1.7 in the map, 1.07 (which is probably more accurate) in the talk. Greetings from an often cloudy and rainy but thus very green Switzerland 😊
You should have done a comparison on weather, especially severe weather.
I think the two geographical entities could also be interestingly compared by the amount of foreskin per capita.
whut? why? And, how would you reliably count that?
US has by far a higher percentage of circumcized men. Like it's not even close
@@alex1695lopez Yes, I would suspect so. In Europe, the custom is only practiced among Muslims and Jews. But again, there is no reliable statistics on the matter, is there?
@@Enyavar1 in terms of statistics by religion, I don't think so. But that is generally the reason. However, even today the rate of circumcision is decreasing in the US.
In the US in the 1980s 80% of boys got circumcised, but in the 2010s it was 50%.
1:44
Being from SoCal , specifically the Coachella Valley, it does get around 120 F during the summer. As a kid/teenager I would skate all day long with my brother, during summers lol. Idk how we did it . Now when we go out this time of the year (June 12) it’s way too hot, and it not even the hottest time of the year lol 🥵
June definitely feels significantly hotter because of the contrast in temperatures from the earlier months. The Coachella valley is definitely beyond hot in June though.
@General Knowlege,
Crimea is Ukrainian territory, despite being annexed by russia in 2014. If I'm not mistaken, most UN nations don't recognize Crimea as a part of russia.
2:20 Other factors that determine the amount of Sun an area is exposed to is by the polar tilt of the Earth. The Earth's axis is tilted a certain amount so amount of Sun an area exposed varies greatly. You can imagine it like a spinning top on a table.
I'm kinda jealous of the climate they get to enjoy in Florida or California. Mostly for political reasons I will almost certainly stay in Europe (Croatia), but when it comes to weather and openness to communication with random people I prefer some parts of the U.S.
Living in Southern California the weather is really nice but Croatia is a beautiful country
Croatia is beautiful with lovely people and a rich history. I am from USA and will live here for political reasons (I really do love my country) but that doesn’t mean I dislike yours. I am very thankful for you and your compatriots.
Croatia, my favourite country 😊 Liebe Grüße aus Österreich
It would have been a more interesting comparison if you included the rest of North America. It would still stack up against Europe.
Canada would carry the U.S. in so many categories lmao
@@ringtail5021 Yeah totally Canada would totally carry everything it's not that America already easily compares with the entirety of Europe. Canada's market is equivalent to one state.
@@cablefeed3738 Camada is so much better in a lot of ways
@@chrislfc2317 I agree there are plenty of ways in which Canada is better I just don't see how they could say that Canada would carry America in many calgaries As if America wasn't going to pull their weight.
@@chrislfc2317 ehh, not really, they’re very similar to america
hello i'm frenche.
in France the 14% is rather fair because in France, young adults benefit from housing assistance which is similar to social security, a young person in France can have 50% of the rent, or even more covered by the state
It looks like the dark blue srea in Norway ciuld be Bergen. It's famous for it's amount of rainy days. It's surrounded by mountains and apparently together with wind from the atlantic ocean, the humidity never really leaves. It blows up against the mountains and then drops down as rain.
Ideas to compare US/EU:
Educational level
Import/Export levels
Level of foreign language skills (how many speaks a second language than their native ones) Per state/country
I don’t find the comparison of a continent with a country valid. The closest to United States is the European Union not Europe. EU countries have sometimes extreme differences with non-EU European countries.
which other things determines hours of sun?
Pressure systems and pressure belts(low pressure vs high pressure systems and belts), how close to the ocean are you(continental vs maritime weather), Lattitude because closer to the equator you get the more vertical the clouds are vs the further from equator the flatter the clouds are.
2:00 Of course, the number of sunshine hours at the surface is not just related only to the latitude.
A very important thing is the cloudiness. If it's raining the whole day, you dont get sunlight where you are. But when it's a cloudless day, you get sunshine from sunrise to sunset.
In Europe and North America, westerly winds dominate in most of the areas. A big difference between North America and Europe is the orography. In the west of North America, you have a huge mountain chain, Rocky Mountains. In Europe, apart from Norway, the big mountain chains are oriented from west to east, like the pyrenees and the alps. So the prevailing westerly winds are able to carry the cloudy maritime air masses further into the continent than in North America.
5:40 I'm from Portugal. I'm 18 and I can buy every drink a want 😂. Vodka, beer, wine... u got some miss information there
The US actually has around 1.4 million active duty personal soldiers and about 845,000 in the reserves.
and what about the police? I hear they're highly militarized and wield tanks and grenades, they should be counted as military too.
@@Enyavar1 They just have APCs not actual M1Abram tanks! The police here also do not have grenades, just bean bag guns that look like it.
One reason the driving age in places like South Dakota is so low is that many times they are driving farm equipment. Another reason is that it is a sparsely populated area so they are not having to deal with traffic and the hazards that come with it. States with more dense urban areas tend to have higher driving ages though this has narrowed over the years. New York State used to have a driving age of 18 although there are exceptions; California has always been 16 as far as I know and this is because having a car here is often very necessary because of the way most cities here are built.
In Portugal, you can buy any type of alcoholic beverage when you turn 18, there's nothing that says you liquor has a higher age restriction. The age used to be 16 but was progressively bumped up to 18, liquor first, beer and wine afterwards
I used to buy beer as a kid in St. Lucia. Not for me.
USA : 1 county, 50 states, 1 federal district, 5 major overseas territories, 9 minor outlying territories
Just goes to show you how big the US really is although sometimes even without the territories it's still considered massively/overwhelmingly/ridiculously big
@@omarkotb69420 God bless America, long may she live. Let her major territories become states, and show this world what a true democracy/republic is
@@dylanshaffer2184 umm... Are you patriotic? or nationalistic? or both? Also since when did the US care about spreading their democracy, the US only cares about their interests not anyone else, not that I want to break that for you but I was telling you the truth about the country and that not all the country itself is developed/have democracy you can only find that in some specific States that are in the north or northeast like (Minnesota or Massachusetts and the rest of the New England area)
@@omarkotb69420 To answer your first questions, I think I’m a bit of both. And I agree the USA still has a lot of work to do. But when it comes to spreading democracy, it should do that within its own borders, especially with the 5 major overseas territories of Puerto Rico, USVI, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas islands, and American Samoa. By further integrating our fellow citizens and Americans, with the election system which I also believe needs to be overhauled, and to have full voting representation in its Congress, along with full benefits.
@@dylanshaffer2184 yeah i agree with you especially with the elections and the whole Democratic vs Republican thing, but I feel like if a country fails horribly with spreading democracy around the world (the cold war from 1947 to 1990 and even beyond that like in 2003 in Iraq) would not succeed in spreading democracy in their own borders but yeah I don't mean to make you hate your country but I'm just letting you know and I know it technically have nothing to do with what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria etc. But it's sad to think about and some bad decisions from bad presidents, and you know what it's always good to love your country even if it has a lot of problems, like myself I'm Egyptian and I love Egypt but I hate the government (it's a regime but they don't tell you that) and the whole system overall and it's the worst but I just hope that it gets better and the regime gets demolished and a new actual president comes in who actually knows what he's doing but that's never gonna happen because we're living in a dictatorship (our president is a dictator he kills thousands and thousands of his people and does many more but I won't get into that cuz we're gonna be here forever), and I know America has its Pros and Cons just like in every country, anyways I hope the best for you
Regarding hours of sunlight, it's presumably related to cloud cover which is determined by oceanic and atmospheric currents (gulf steam and jet stream) and the prevalence of anticyclones (over the Azores for Western Europe).
It might be confused with hours of daylight, which can be as low as 1 hour or even zero hours a day in parts of Norway in wintertime, while it's 24 hours in the same areas in mid summer.
Slight correction on the military size of the US as of current numbers:
1,376,658 Active Duty
799,500 Guard/Reserve
2.1 million total service members, with roughly 165000 on deployed status.
regarding the age limit in Germany: you are allowed to get a drivers license at 17, but there must be a "designated passenger" (over 25, owning a drivers license themselves...) always on board when you are driving.
you are allowed to vote for smaller elections on a city/state level from the age of 16.
Beer and wine is allowed from 16 onward and everything else at 18.