During this presidential campaign, we have heard references to Sweden and other Scandinavian countries. Senator Bernie Sanders says, “I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden, and Norway and learn from what they have accomplished for their working people.” Many European countries have gained the reputation of being very wealthy even though they are highly regulated and have high rates of taxation.

Various studies have attempted to show this is not true. Last year there was a study in the UK Spectator that argued that Britain was poorer than any U.S. state other then Mississippi. Many criticized the article because it used GDP per capita. It is possible that a few very rich people could skew the numbers.

Ryan McMaken (Mises Institute) decided to pull together data using median income in order to avoid the criticisms cited against other studies. Here is what he found.

If Sweden were to join the U.S. as a state, Sweden would be poorer than all but 12 states. Residents in states like Colorado, Massachusetts, Virginia, Washington, and Utah have considerably higher incomes than Sweden. Denmark has a median income below all but 13 U.S. states.

Mississippi has a higher median income than 18 countries. The Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and the United Kingdom all have median incomes below every single American state.

When you look at the data and charts, you can only come to one conclusion. We shouldn’t be trying to be like Sweden or other European countries. They should be trying to be like America.