Error: I'm afraid this is the first I've heard of a "trackback" flavoured Blosxom. Try dropping the "/+trackback" bit from the end of the URL.

Fri, 22 Dec 2006

How Many Americans Have Passports?

This dodgy statistic has been hard to locate, but I thought I would finally hunt down the real number. Unfortunately, there is no real number! I was told over my last trip that only 2% of Americans have passport - this appears to be a rumor. According to an Oct 1, 2006 NY Times article:

The State Department estimates that 73 percent of Americans now lack passports.

So that means 27% of Americans have passports today. Considering that on January 8th our borders are 'closed' even to Mexico and Canada - this is still a mind boggling statistic! Especially when compared to the UK; seems that over 90% of the English have passports. Pretty wild, I hope to see this statistic change because I believe it would be a big indicator of an improving 'world view' for your average american...