Skip to Content

United States Factsheet

A 2010 CESR factsheet reveals that despite the country's wealth, the United States has one the poorest records of economic and social rights achievement of all high-income countries. Child poverty and infant mortality are far higher than in other comparable countries. Health and education disparities, particularly between ethnic groups, are extremely wide: African American women are almost four times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. 

The factsheet is part of CESR's Visualizing Rights series. Each factsheet focuses on a country and its economic, social and cultural rights obligations. This focus helps enable intergovernmental human rights mechanisms, such as the UN, and national and international NGOs, monitor governments' compliance with their economic, social and cultural rights obligations.

The latest available socioeconomic data is used, taken either from international sources such as the World Bank or the UNDP, or national sources, such as national statistics bureaus. This data is displayed using graphs and charts, and then analyzed and interpreted. This is meant to shed light on the condition of governments' economic and social rights obligations.