Where the toys are

On October 5 the Financial Times published the graphic above, featuring a map of the world with countries sized according to the value of toys imported.

A table below the map shows the top ten importers of toys, per capita, in 2002.

Here, let me make it easier for you:

1. Luxembourg

2. Belgium

3. Switzerland

4. Singapore

5. Norway

6. Canada

7. US

8. Denmark

9. Austria

10. UAE

From the Financial Times legend for the figure:

The UK is ranked in the mid–teens and France and Germany in the high 20s.

The US imports more than twice as many toys as the combined total of the UK, Germany and Japan.

Based on population sizes, small and wealthy European countries are generally the biggest importers.

The figures show the yawning income gap — the rich countries buy in over $80 of toys per capita each year, 10,000 times as much as countries such as Liberia, Somalia and Tajikistan.

Tell you what: spend the toy money on Plumpy'nut and give the packets to the countries shown in the map below

that are suffering most and the people in the countries living large in the map up top will end up far better off — in both the short and the long runs.

[Financial Times source: www.shef.ac.uk/sasi using Unctad data]