Ten Fascinating Things You May Have Missed

Ten fascinating findings about citizens of the U.S. and the world that you may have missed:

1. Americans who are unemployed and looking for work are significantly more likely to be smokers than those who are employed. In fact, the difference is very significant: 32.8% of those who are unemployed and looking for work smoke, compared to 19.5% of those who are employed full time or voluntarily working part time. My colleague Dan Witters discusses many of the reasons why this could be the case. Correlation is no proof of causation, but smoking looks like it could be hazardous not only to your physical health, but to your employment health as well.

2. Despite rampant gloom and doom, more Americans were "thriving" and fewer were "struggling" in May than has been the case since February of last year. This appears to be driven by an uptick in the percentage of women who are thriving.

3. About half of Americans rate the economy in their local area as excellent or good. This is more positive than the ratings Americans give the state of the U.S. as a whole. And all three of these ratings are more positive than the ratings Americans give Europe and the world as a whole. Ever optimists, 60% of those under 30 rate economic conditions in their local area excellent/good, the highest of any age group.

4. About half of Republicans say that Republican president George W. Bush deservers a great deal/moderate amount of blame for the bad economic conditions in the U.S. -- even though he has been living in Dallas totally out of the political world for about three and a half years now. On the other hand, only 19% of Democrats say that Obama deserves a great deal/moderate amount of blame.

5. Four in 10 Americans do not know what Mitt Romney's religion is. Even fewer know what Obama's religion is. Stay tuned for more on these fascinating findings the week of June 17.

6. Only one in 10 Obama voters say they are voting for him because of his approach to healthcare or his healthcare plan, and only 4% of Romney voters say they are voting for him because of something relating to healthcare. Most voters' rationales for their support for either candidate deal with things other than healthcare.

7. Of the five so-called BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa)residents of Russia are the least likely to be satisfied with their personal health and the most likely to report having health problems. The Chinese appear to be most satisfied with their health, at least based on their self-reports of health problems.

8. The impact of the federal government on health insurance is plainly evident in Gallup's tracking of Americans' reports of whether or not they have insurance. Only 3% of those 65 and older say they don't have health insurance -- thanks to the government's Medicare program. The percentage of those 18 to 25 years without health insurance is high at 23.0%, but that's down from 28.0% in the third quarter of 2010, almost certainly thanks to the influence of the new healthcare act's provision that young people can ride on their parents' policies. Meanwhile, 19.6% of the bulk of the population, those aged 26 to 64, don't have health insurance, which is up from 15% at the beginning of 2008.

9. Iraq has the most negative emotions of any country in the world. Countries with the lowest negative emotional score are the Somaliland region of Somalia, Uzbekistan, Thailand and Kyrgyzstan. The explanation for Iraqi's negativity is self-evident; why residents of Somaliland, Uzbekistan, Thailand and Kyrgyzstan have such positive mental attitudes is less clear.

10. Americans who have postgraduate education are a widely varied lot -- including those who have MBAs, PhDs in English literature, MDs, DVMs, MPHs, MAs, JDs, MSWs and so forth. But these postgraduates as a group have one thing in common -- they are significantly more supportive of Barack Obama over Mitt Romney than those who don't have a postgraduate degree. Among white women, the difference between having a postgraduate education and not is 13 percentage points (52% support for Obama to 39% support). Among white men, the difference is 14 points, (45% support for Obama to 31% support).