Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Best place in the world to be a woman is the US. Best place in the world to be black is the US

[lpetrich]

Of course, none of this really has anything to do with the OP; I don't think the US is in any immediate danger of falling behind on either science or progressive issues on the kind of scale the non-western powers historically were in comparison to Europe. The US *is* a pretty good place to be for either a minority or a woman, and getting better and better... it's just not *the* best and not likely to be the best any time soon.

Yes, good but not the best. Let's see about the numbers.

 Democracy Index 2014
Norway: 9.93
US: 8.11
North Korea: 1.08

 List of countries by Fragile States Index 2014
South Sudan: 112.9 (longtime champion Somalia is at 112.6)
US: 35.4
Finland: 18.7

 List of countries by Human Development Index
Norway: 0.944
US: 0.914
Niger: 0.337

 List of countries by inequality-adjusted HDI
Norway: 0.891
US: 0.755
Central African Republic: 0.203

 List of countries by Social Progress Index
New Zealand: 88.24
US (16): 82.77
Chad: 32.6
Basic Human Needs:
Denmark: 95.73
US (23): 89.82
Chad: 25.94
Foundations of Well-Being:
Switzerland: 89.78
US (36): 75.96
Djibouti: 41.34
Opportunity:
New Zealand: 88.01
US (5): 82.54
Yemen: 24.31

The Geography of Women's Economic Opportunity - CityLab (lower = better)
The UN's Gender Inequality Index: 2 out of 5 (the map doesn't show any 1's)
The World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index: 2 out of 5
Social Watch's Gender Equity Index: 2 out of 6
The UN’s Gender Empowerment Index: 2 out of 5
The Economist Intelligence Unit's Women’s Opportunity Index: 2 out of 5