Something to consider...

Lots of stuff has been going on but I won't tell you about that. Instead, some statistics to consider.

Road deaths, 2005*:

I like to compare the US, Germany and Poland whenever I can. The US, obviously, because that's where I'm from. Germany, because that's our next-door neighbor. They have similar terrain, similar weather, they're in the EU and so on - and yet so vastly different from Poland.

In 2005, Poland had 5444 road deaths. Germany had 5361. The US had 43510. To put it into context, in terms of per one billion kilometers driven: Poland had 29 road deaths per 1b km. Germany had 6. The US had 9.

Conclusions? Poland isn't a very safe place to drive in or be a pedestrian in. Germany's safer than I thought or, rather, the US isn't as safe as I thought. It would be very interesting to see the average age of the vehicles involved in crashes in Poland vs. the US and DE because, frankly, the average age of a vehicle in Poland is higher (or older) than the US or Germany. Older cars are cheaper but have less safety features. Additionally, it's quite vogue for people not to wear seat belts in Poland.

*The US data has been gathered from here and the EU data from Eurostat, here (PDF).


Purchasing Power Parity 2006*:
Poland 62.9, Slovakia 58.2, Germany 103.3, EU27 100.0

What does this mean? From the guide, "If the index of the comparative price levels shown for a country is higher/ lower than 100, the country concerned is relatively expensive/cheap as compared with the EU average."

Conclusion: PPP isn't GDP. PPP is, basically, an attempt to take GDP and then check how much things cost and then determine whether it's "cheaper" to live somewhere else based on how much you'll make and how much things will cost. E.g. it's not, generally speaking, financially viable to move to Germany and work there unless you're shacked up with five other people in a small flat and never spend money on anything. Keep in mind that PPP is checking against how much stuff costs in that particular country vs. the EU average. It's cheap for German tourists to go to Poland.

See the next group of stats for more comparison...

*Data gathered from Eurostat, here.


GDP in USD for 2006*:
Poland $14,400. Slovakia $18,200. Germany $31,900.

Conclusions? GDP and PPP are both commentary on how much we make and how much things cost and how much of our money it's going to take to get those things. Look back at the PPP statistics above for Poland and Slovakia and look here at the GDP in USD: Poland's GDP is lower, but PPP is higher compared to Slovakia. What does that mean? It means that living in Poland is ...well, we won't say cheaper... but perhaps "easier" than in Slovakia. Funny, ain't it?

*Data from CIA World Factbook.


Energy and Water*:
"Final electricity consumption of households, 2004 (GWh per 1000 inhabitants)":
Poland 0.6, Slovakia 0.9, Germany 1.7, EU25 average 1.7.

"Final natural gas consumption of households, 2004 (Terajoules per 1000 inhabitants)":
Poland 3.7, Slovakia 12.9, Germany 16.0, EU25 average 11.8.

"Price of natural gas, electricity and heating gas oil for households, all taxes included, 1st half-year of 2006.":
Natural Gas: Poland 10.5 EUR per GJ, Slovakia 12.1, Germany 17.8, EU25 14.5
Electricity: Poland 11.9 EUR per 100 kWh, Slovakia 14.5, Germany 18.3, EU25 14.2
Heating gas oil: Poland 570.9 EUR per 1000 litres, Slovakia 521.6, Germany 589.9

*The data was gathered from Eurostat, here.


Monthly charges for national mobile services expressed in PPP w/ VAT, 2004*:
Poland: Centertel 54.31, Era 36.74. Slovakia: Orange 54.11, T-Mobile 56.07. Germany: T-Mobile 43.73, Vodafone 48.32

Conclusions? If you lived in Slovakia in 2004 and had a reasonable mobile phone package from either major mobile company ...you were getting screwed. This is one of the sorts of things that PPP takes into consideration that raw numbers like GDP don't.

*Data from Eurostat, here.


Households with Internet 2006*:
Poland 23%, Slovakia 14%, Germany 44%.

*Data from Eurostat, here.


Price of a 10 minute fixed-line national telephone call at peak-time (PPP w/ VAT) 2005*:
Poland incumbent 2.25, competitor 2.05. Slovakia incumbent 2.32, competitor 1.96. Germany incumbent 0.43, competitor 0.82.

Conclusions? We're getting screwed in Poland when it comes to land line prices.

*Data from Eurostat, here.


Price of a postage stamp for a letter in the EU, 2006 (EUR)*:
Poland 0.52 national vs. 0.75 (EU). Slovakia 0.41 / 0.60. Germany 0.55 / 0.70.

Conclusions? The postal service is too expensive, especially considering how breathtakingly rude, incompetent and slow it is.

*Data from Eurostat, here.


Which of the following means of payment do you prefer to use to pay for a significant purchase of at least 100 Euros? (percent of respondents) 2005*:
Poland: 75% cash, 18% credit/debit card, 4% bank (wire) transfer.
Slovakia: 68% cash, 19% credit/debit card, 8% bank (wire) transfer, 3% cheque.
Germany: 51% cash, 42% credit/debit card, 9% bank (wire) transfer, 1% cheque.
EU25: 49% cash, 36% credit/debit card, 5% bank (wire) transfer, 7% cheque.

Conclusions? This is why DeGrasso pizza across the street from us doesn't have a credit/debit terminal and why we stopped going there. I'm told by Paula, though, that the charge for using a credit card is roughly 2% of the purchase, but perhaps there is a minimum charge - many places require you to spend 10 PLN or more to use a card.

Contrast this with the next question!

*Data from Eurostat, here.


Which one of the following means of payment do you prefer to use to pay for a significant purchase of at least 100 Euros in another Member Country of the EU? (percentage of respondents) 2005*:
Poland: 39% cash, 30% credit/debit card, 4% bank (wire) transfer, 2% cheque, 22% never bought anything in another EU country.
Slovakia: 46% cash, 26% credit/debit card, 7% bank (wire) transfer, 3% cheque, 14% never bought anything in another EU country.
Germany: 46% cash, 36% credit/debit card, 3% bank (wire) transfer, 1.5% cheque, 12% never bought anything in another EU country.

Conclusions? Poles are more than twice as likely to use their credit/debit cards when traveling: 43% (abroad) vs. 18% (at home). I think that's entirely down to the answer to another question in this particular stats review and that was to the "why?" question. It's easier to carry cash in Poland because there just aren't many card swipe terminals.

*Data from Eurostat, here.


Credit institutions 2003/4*:
Poland 2003: 7,585 ATMs. ATMs per 100k people: 19.9
Slovakia: no data available.
Czech Republic 2004: 2,393 ATMs. ATMs per 100k people: 23.4
Germany 2004: 52,595 ATMs. ATMs per 100k people: 63.7

Conclusions? There are usually quite a few ATMs in the larger cities in Poland but in anything under, say, 20k population it may be impossible to find an ATM at all. This doesn't appear to be the case in Germany.

*Data from Eurostat, here.


Average sales prices of unleaded petrol and diesel in Euro and PPS per 1000 litres, July 1, 2006*:

Poland EUR: petrol 1079 / diesel 1003. PPS: petrol 1954 / diesel 1817.
Slovakia EUR: petrol 1105 / diesel 1086. PPS: petrol 1927 / diesel 1893.
Germany EUR: petrol 1375 / diesel 1148. PPS: petrol 1293 / diesel 1079.

Conclusions? PPS tells the whole store here. The difference in diesel between Poland and Germany isn't much ...but the purchasing power of the two peoples is very different.

*Data from Eurostat, here.