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Keep in mind though that US Highway 1 and Interstate 95 both run down the east coast of the U.S., from Houlton, Maine (which has a climate similar to that of Russia with snow on the ground and freezing temperatures 4-5 months of the year) to Miami, Florida which is basically a year-round summer climate similar to that of Brisbane.
Further inland, Interstate 35 runs as a single road from Duluth, Minnesota (again, a climate similar to that of Russia) to Laredo, Texas with average daily maximums of 20C or more during all 12 months of the year.
Even within a single state like Texas, you have the northeast part of the state (which is not mountainous BTW) where typical January maximums are around 5C and sometimes below freezing, and the southeastern part of the state around Brownsville where it is close to year-round summer with maximums of 20C or above in every single month.
Miami has a climate most similar to far southern Taiwan, or Cairns. Not Brisbane. Brisbane has a humid subtropical climate of the mild, coastal variety, Miami has a tropical monsoon climate. That's similar to Sanya or Bangkok.
Miami supposedly shares a climate with Cali (Colombia), Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Vitiria (Brazil), Yaounde (Cameroon), and Loubomo (Congo), and Kampene (DR Congo).
In contrast, Portland, Maine, shares a climate with Sapporo, Groningen, Rossenheim, Stuttgart, and Liestal, Switzerland.
Brownsville has a climate similar to Maputo (Mozambique), Amritsar (India), Moshi (Tanzania), Campina Grande (Brazil), and Senanga (Zambia)
Duluth has a climate similar to Moscow (Russia), Minsk (Belarus), Haapsalu (Estonia), Gdvle (Sweden), and Rezekne (Latvia).
As you mentioned, a city like Tulsa, Oklahoma, has a climate similar to many areas of south-central and eastern China, Sopore in India, and much of Croatia and Albania, Whereas Amarillo in the Texas panhandle has a climate similar to many regions of Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan, Iran, and Tajikistan, where Laredo has a climate similar to many areas of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Algeria.
It also doesn't make sense to describe a climate as "similar to that of (giant country)". Where in Russia? Sochi or Novosibirsk?
Just checked the OP and this thread was supposed to be about people, not about geography and climate. Though a few us have diverged towards geography and climate.
I chipped in years later by addressing a claim about "diversity of lifestyle", which I feel is heavily affected by geography and climate, as the poster I had responded to had already alluded to.
WIth the exception of Quebec and a few small communities in Maritimes, Canada is very uniform also.
It has similar traits to Australia, when you consider Canada's smaller, more concentrated population, it's large block of (largely unpleasant) climate to contend with, it's long history as a British dominion, and, not to much before WW2, a much more limited number and array of immigrants relative to the US.
However, it has a colonial history that is older than Australia's, though quite not as intense and rapid as America's, and has a moderately substantial degree of regional and local differences, most notably the difference of language, and the culture associated with it, that Australia doesn't have. It has noted differences in architecture and culture between Quebec City, Montreal, Regina, Halifax, Vancouver, Victoria, and Toronto that I don't think Australia has between it's cities and regions, really at all.
Australia is dominated by a hot desert or hot semi-arid regime, with a substantial humid subtropical coastline, some smaller areas of mediterranean and cold semi-arid climates, some regions of tropical savanna, and some smaller regions of tropical rainforest, tropical monsoon, and oceanic maritime climates, mainly in the far southern coastal regions and on Tasmania.
Climatically, it is moderately diverse. However, it is much more dominated by a singular climate or two, whereas America's climatic make up is much more complex, driven by a larger size, the obvious islands and exclaves, and a more complex geography that encompasses much more significant rises and falls in elevation, lakes, deserts, and a greater percentage of humid climates and forested area. The US has many microclimates, and has a total of 26 Koppen climate types named within the borders of the continental US alone, the most of any country in the world, and it has regions of extremes in temperature and climate, due to the clashing climatic barriers, that Australia doesn't have.
There's also the matter of population distribution and the location of it's cities, and as I've said before, the vast majority of Australia's cities, and the bulk of it's population, live in east coast cities with humid subtropical mild climates. Even the few cities that do diverge (Perth, Mediterranean, and Darwin, tropical rainforest), don't diverge quite as much as, say, Boise (hot summer mediterranean continental) and Charleston (humid subtropical coastal), or Madison, Wisconsin (warm summer humid continental) and St. George, Utah (Hot Desert).
As for Sydney and Melbourne being diverse, yes, I'm aware, but that diversity is much more recent. Australia as a whole received much less immigration, and a much more limited array of immigrants before WW2, relative to the US. I never said Sydney was a small city, it just isn't quite a megacity like New York City, or Los Angeles are.
Australia's diversity is driven by newer, primarily Asian immigrants, and what more diverse immigrants they've received from Europe since World War 2. So it isn't as ethnically and racially mixed and stratified and "diverse" as the US.
Yes all that is true. I was correcting the impression that Australia had much the same climate everywhere, no large cities and limited diversity.
But what is the point of this whole discussion? Do we award a medal to the US for having the most diverse climate?
Miami has a climate most similar to far southern Taiwan, or Cairns. Not Brisbane. Brisbane has a humid subtropical climate of the mild, coastal variety, Miami has a tropical monsoon climate. That's similar to Sanya or Bangkok.
Miami supposedly shares a climate with Cali (Colombia), Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Vitiria (Brazil), Yaounde (Cameroon), and Loubomo (Congo), and Kampene (DR Congo).
In contrast, Portland, Maine, shares a climate with Sapporo, Groningen, Rossenheim, Stuttgart, and Liestal, Switzerland.
Brownsville has a climate similar to Maputo (Mozambique), Amritsar (India), Moshi (Tanzania), Campina Grande (Brazil), and Senanga (Zambia)
Duluth has a climate similar to Moscow (Russia), Minsk (Belarus), Haapsalu (Estonia), Gdvle (Sweden), and Rezekne (Latvia).
As you mentioned, a city like Tulsa, Oklahoma, has a climate similar to many areas of south-central and eastern China, Sopore in India, and much of Croatia and Albania, Whereas Amarillo in the Texas panhandle has a climate similar to many regions of Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan, Iran, and Tajikistan, where Laredo has a climate similar to many areas of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Algeria.
It also doesn't make sense to describe a climate as "similar to that of (giant country)". Where in Russia? Sochi or Novosibirsk?
All true. Though I was just speaking in generalities to illustrate the stark contrasts between climates located at the opposite ends of the same road in the same country.
It wasn't meant to be a Köppen-based climatological analysis.
Yes all that is true. I was correcting the impression that Australia had much the same climate everywhere, no large cities and limited diversity.
But what is the point of this whole discussion? Do we award a medal to the US for having the most diverse climate?
The point of the entire thread? To discuss ways in which countries are diverse?
It was never my impression that Australia didn't have large cities, had no diversity, and had the same climate everywhere, and I never said any of that.
Which Anglophone country do you consider "most diverse"? For fear of biasing, I'll leave the term "diversity" as a blank slate, with the only caveat that I'm talking about the people - not biomes or weather or anything like that. When you picture each country, which do you consider most diverse?
Possible forms of diversity (though please don't limit yourself to these if there are other forms missing)
Racial Diversity
Ethnic Diversity
Tribal Diversity
Ancestral Diversity
Lingustic Diversity
Political/Ideological Diversity
Religious Diversity
Socioeconomic Diversity
Culinary Diversity
Cultural Diversity
Artistic Diversity
Indigenous Diversity
Regional Diversity
Just letting my complete opinions be known.
As I've said, because of size and diversity of the population, as well as geographic and climatic complexity, I think the US wins most of these categories. But I'll enumerate which one's I think have the most in each category of diversity named, by ranking the major anglosphere/anglophone countries.
Racial Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Ethnic/Ancestral Diversity:
1) US
2) Canada
3) Australia
4) UK
Tribal/Indigenous Diversity:
1) US and Australia (TIE)
2) Canada
3) UK
Linguistic Diversity:
1) Canada and US (TIE)
2) the UK
3) Australia
*I ended up putting Canada and the US at a tie for first, rather than Canada the winner, because I didn't feel that it's official bilingualism (two solid blocks of English and French) really outweighed the diversity of the variety of languages spoken in the US, which includes the unique pervasiveness of Spanish.
Political/Ideological Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Religious Diversity:
1) US
2) Canada
3) UK
4) Australia
Socioeconomic Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Culinary Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Cultural Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Artistic Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Regional Diversity/Complexity:
*I took demographics, overall culture, as well as geography and climate into account for this.
As I've said, because of size and diversity of the population, as well as geographic and climatic complexity, I think the US wins most of these categories. But I'll enumerate which one's I think have the most in each category of diversity named, by ranking the major anglosphere/anglophone countries.
Racial Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Ethnic/Ancestral Diversity:
1) US
2) Canada
3) Australia
4) UK
Tribal/Indigenous Diversity:
1) US and Australia (TIE)
2) Canada
3) UK
Linguistic Diversity:
1) Canada and US (TIE)
2) the UK
3) Australia
*I ended up putting Canada and the US at a tie for first, rather than Canada the winner, because I didn't feel that it's official bilingualism (two solid blocks of English and French) really outweighed the diversity of the variety of languages spoken in the US, which includes the unique pervasiveness of Spanish.
Political/Ideological Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Religious Diversity:
1) US
2) Canada
3) UK
4) Australia
Socioeconomic Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Culinary Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Cultural Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Artistic Diversity:
1) US
2) UK
3) Canada
4) Australia
Regional Diversity/Complexity:
*I took demographics, overall culture, as well as geography and climate into account for this.
1) US
2) UK and Canada (TIE)
3) Australia
The UK would easily be the least racially diverse country of the 4. It was 82% white British, and 87% white at its last census (2011) By contrast in Australia's last census (2016) (our census does not collect statistics on racial diversity) , 16.3% of the population had ancestry to East or South Asia, 3.3% were aboriginal, 2.5% were west Asian or North African, 1.5% were Polynesian/Maori or Melanesian. There are not many Black Africans here but they still exist, any may make up another 0.5% of the population.
All up you would be looking at about 76% white European in Australian in 2016, vs 87% white European in the UK 5 years earlier. I know the UK is changing, but it is not changing that much.
Last edited by danielsa1775; 03-11-2020 at 11:27 PM..
The UK would easily be the least racially diverse country of the 4. It was 87% white at its last census (2011) By contrast Australia in the last census of Australia (2016), 16.3% of the population had ancestry to East or South Asia, 3.3% were aboriginal, 2% were west Asian, 1.5% were Polynesian/Maori or Melanesian. There are not many Black Africa
All up you would be looking at about 76% white European in Australian in 2016, vs 87% white European in the UK 5 years earlier. I know the UK is changing, but it is not changing that much.
This was just my perception. I wasn't aware of that! I was also taking into consideration the variety of races present in a population.
This was just my perception. I wasn't aware of that! I was also taking into consideration the variety of races present in a population.
But that makes sense.
Have you actually been to or spent time in all of those countries though? I have, and your rankings seem a bit..odd.
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