State of the union: how has America changed under Barack Obama? Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

State of the union speech: how has America changed under Obama?

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As the state of the union speech is presented by Barack Obama, we take a look at how the US has changed under his presidency
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As the president gives the state of the union speech, what kind of country has America become under Barack Obama? Here are some of the key datasets which show a changing nation. What have we missed? Let us know in the comments field below.

The economy

US growth is predicted to grow this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. But, like many countries, recession hit the economy hard after 2008 as Obama came into power. But the US's recovery is stronger than many other countries, including the UK.

The IMF believes America's GDP will grow by 1.8% this year. The US has prioritised economic stimulus measures over fiscal cutbacks - following the deal that will allow its national debt to grow into the next presidential term.
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Debt

The US national debt has rocketed, from $10.6tn in 2009 to busting through the US debt ceiling $14.294tn last year - according to these day by day figures.

To accommodate this, the US debt ceiling has been raised eight times by Obama, which may seem like a lot but pales next to Ronald Regan's increases (see below).

The last time it went up, in February 2010, the figure increased to $14.294 trillion. More US debt is now owned by Asian countries such as China than ever before.

However, the US position on debt looks healthier than the UK's, if you look at it as a proportion of GDP.

War

Although the Obama presidency has seen the end of operations in Iraq and a winding down in Afghanistan, hundreds of US serviuce personnel have died in the two countries since he became president.

If you look at the official figures for total active service deaths - they are down too, from their George W Bush peak - but still far above the low of the Clinton years. Under Obama 4,251 servicemen and women died by the end of 2011, to be exact, including those who were killed in accidents, suicides and so on (about 30% of the total. That's an average of 1,400 a year.

That compares with 12,444 under George W Bush, or 1,500 a year.

At the same time, defence spending is to be cut, although the US will still be the world's biggest military spender by a long way.

US deaths in Iraq mapped >>
US deaths in Afghanistan mapped >>

Unemployment

American unemployment is getting better after some real increases. Employment grew in December and the jobless rate 'dropped' to a near three-year low of 8.5% - although a fall of 0.1%-points is really a static figure, rather than a big fall.

But, better as those figures are, that's still 13.3m people, up 1.4%-points since Obama took over in January 2009. No US president since FDR has won an election with unemployment this high.
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The poor and the super rich

One in every seven Americans now lives below the poverty line - that's a record 46.2million people. It's not the highest percentage of the population as ever but still a significant increase.

And 50 million (one in six) have no health insurance either. Of every 17 Americans, at least one will be earning below the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, according to the latest data, and 14.5% of Americans are now food insecure. Median incomes have gone down too - from $34,908 in 2007, to $32,137 for a man working full-time.

At the same time, the US now has a record number of billionaires. The WSJ reported that:

According to the annual World Wealth Report from Merill Lynch and Capgemini, the U.S. had 3.1 million millionaires in 2010, up from 2.86 million in 2009. The latest figure tops the pre-crisis peak of three million. Merrill and Capgemini define millionaires as individuals with $1 million or more in investible assets, not including primary home, collectibles, consumables and consumer durables. The wealth held by these millionaires also hit a record. North American millionaires had a combined wealth of $11.6 trillion, up from $10.7 trillion in 2009.

This has inspired the Occupy movement and the 99% v 1% campaign. You can see more of this data in the video below.

Corruption

According to Transparency International's world corruption index, the US has become more open and less corrupt since 2008 - with a score improving from a low of 7.5 in 2009 to 7.1 in 2011, where it is ranked 24 in the world - but still behind the UK, most of Europe, Qatar and Chile. However, it is still ahead of France and Italy.
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Popularity

Obama's personal ratings hit a high after his election but have never recovered, as this daily data from Rasmussen shows, with an average of between 40% and 50% approval.

It still makes the election very close to call. The latest state of the parties survey by Rasmussen found

47% of likely US voters would support the generic Republican candidate if the presidential election were held today, while 42% would vote for Obama, 3% prefer some other candidate and 8% are undecided

At the same time, 48% of the population think Romney would do better job with economy, 39% trust Obama more.

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