document updated 11 months ago, on Dec 15, 2023

Things the United States is an extreme outlier in:

incarceration rate — the United States has the world's highest incarceration rate, and has 22% of the world's prisoner population despite having 4% of the world population
bail bondsmen and bounty hunters — they are illegal almost everywhere in the world, except for United States and the Philippines [2] [3]
grand juries — they've been abolished in all countries except two, US and Liberia
pharmaceutical marketing to consumers — most countries prohibit this, except for US and New Zealand [2]
paid parental leave — the US is the only industrialized country that doesn't offer paid parental leave, and is one of only 6 countries globally that offer none [2] [3] [4]
the metric system — the US is the only industrialized country that doesn't use metric as its predominant system of measure [2]
- The US officially adopted metric in 1975, but in practice uses other measurement systems the majority of the time.
- (TODO — Check to see if anyone has produced a report that lists the "extent of metrication" of each country, because there's some real nuance here — some countries haven't officially adopted it but use it at least partially, and a number of countries that have officially adopted it but still use non-metric measures ocassionally)

keywords that this document should be included within search results of — American exceptionalism