More than a third of people in the Middle East now use the internet, slightly above the world average.
Being 35, 000 feet above the world can be extremely freeing.
At the Nasdaq OMX Group, a single technician sits in front of eight flat-panel computer screens in a quiet operations center, 51 stories above the World Trade Center construction site.
In 2011, 28 people were killed on the road for every 100, 000 people in the country, government statistics show, above the world-wide average of around 20 deaths for every 100, 000 people.
This means that almost every country as far from the equator as Japan is near or above the world average GDP per capita, and almost every country closer to the equator than Japan is near or below the world average.
The chart above is from the World Nuclear Association, a group that promotes nuclear energy, and therefore has a vested interest.
But unpredictable events have a way of derailing America's best laid plans to stay above the fray of the world's messiest problems.
New York City remains home to roughly double the number of hedge-fund managers as London, but the two centres increasingly stand head and shoulders above the rest of the world.
In the past 15 years it has swelled by an average of 8% a year, dipping slightly to 6% during last year's global meltdown, with nearly 7% expected this year, well above the 4% the World Bank forecast for southern Africa as a whole.
In both instances, the Met Office failed to predict the movements of the jet stream - the high-level wind that races round the world 10km above the surface.
It's the only surviving above ground remnant of the World Trade Center and yesterday the National Trust for Historic Preservation named it one of the 11 most endangered places in the country.
Each time we look at the medal table, we are encouraged to believe that we still have the capacity to punch above our weight in the world.
Above all, the World Trade Centre has particular resonance for Mr bin Laden.
Serve-and-volleyer Llodra's victory over Verdasco, a player ranked 25 places above him in the world, came as more of a shock result.
The borrowers had average Fair Isaac Corp. credit scores of 685, a tad above the 660 that conventionally divides the world of prime mortgages from subprime.
Australia tried to assert their authority - they are some 16 places above Japan in the world rankings - from the off but some stout and committed defence kept them at bay.
Warren Buffett, one of the world's richest investors, says the total amount of gold in the world - the gold above ground, that is - could fit into a cube with sides of just 20m (67ft).
Above all, the world would know that a President Santorum would be determined to revive the hope that Poland's Lech Walesa declares lost the hope that America would be the last line of defense for freedom and virtue.
WSJ: Michael Ledeen: Santorum Was Right About Iran��When It Was Unpopular
The stand is the last part of the ground to be redeveloped after two new all-seater stands were built at the Worcester Street end in 2004 and the old grandstand side in 2007, the old "Tump" end was redeveloped as a terrace with executive boxes above it for the 1991 World Cup.
The Arctic remains one of the few unexplored regions of the world and the region above Alaska and western Canada is believed to be oil rich.
The developed world, or the industrialized world, is well above 0.8 HDI.
With increasing consumer demand for larger screen sizes, Samsung will also expand the number of models available in 60 inches and above, in addition to the world's largest commercial UHD TV at 110 inches.
ENGADGET: Samsung 2013 LCDs and plasmas revealed: quad core CPU, new menus and more
But let no-one mistake how far above the rest of the world the US has risen.
More generally, national health-care systems everywhere are under financial strain above all in the third world.
Denmark has the highest total tax pressure in the world and is towering far above the European average.
Muldoon no longer flew commercial, not even in first class, but soared above the roof of the world in private jets provided by the studio.
It was in England interests to play on, as a 5-0 whitewash in the series will take them above South Africa into second in the world rankings.
But the fickle nature of commodity trading has derailed yield-hungry ambitions across the currency world leaving a question mark above the rationale or at least the desire among central bankers to shift policy in order to address temporary price spikes.
The Wallabies rugby union team is third in the world rankings - above England and France - but it has not won the Bledisloe Cup against New Zealand's mighty All Blacks for a decade.
The fingers on his flesh told him that he was loved, that he had always been loved, and that the world was a place where above all else the things that were good would find a way to burrow into you.
应用推荐