European Union and Germany

China vs. Germany The author of this report has been asked to describe, compare and contrast two countries. One of those countries is to be part of the European Union (EU) while the other is to be outside of it. The countries that have been selected, respectively, are Germany and China. The items and facets that will be described for each country include culture, business practices, trade agreements, the currencies in play and the globalization that is in motion for both countries.

While the two countries in question are very different in terms of their culture and political situation, there are also some stark similarities. Germany, as many people are aware, is a part of the European Union. Even with the recent move by Great Britain to leave that group, Germany is far and away the largest economy in the group.

Even with the main purpose of the European Union being to present a united economic and political front against other world powers such as India, the United States and China, Germany is quite significant in their own right. The natural resources of Germany include coal, lignite, iron ore, natural gas, nickel, uranium, construction materials, timber, arable land and salt, just to name a few. About half the country (48%) is dedicated to agriculture.

Not quite a third of the country (31.8%) is forest and the remaining 20.2% is in one or more other classifications. The country is populate by about 80 million people as of July 2016. The largest age group by far is the 25-54 range, making up more than two fifths of the country. However, another fifth (21.76%) is over the age of 65. The economy has a total GDP of about $3.841 trillion USD as of 205. The business sector of the German economic is service-dominated (nearly 70%) with industry taking the second spot.

Agriculture is less than one percent. The workforce reflects the same with service taking up nearly three fourths of the population and industry taking nearly a fourth. In terms of culture and religion, Protestants and Roman Catholics make up about a third of the economy each. Other or unaffiliated make up about 28.3%. Prominent ethnic groups aside from Germans include Turks, Italians, Poles, Russians and Serbs/Croats. Muslims are not quite four percent of the population.

Germany is party to a number of economic and environmental agreements including the partnership they have with the EU as a whole as well as the Kyoto environmental treaty (CIA, 2016). China, on the other hand, is a behemoth in a number of ways. Despite being a tad smaller than the United States in term of land mass, they have roughly three to four times the population of the United States.

Half of the lands is agriculture and nearly a fourth each are forest and "other." They are party to agreements that include the Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, the Kyoto Environmental protocol and a few others. Unlike Germany, the country is officially atheist. Also unlike Germany, a majority of the people in the country (52.2%) reflect the same. Those that do have a religion include Buddhist (18.2%), Christian (5.1%) and Muslim (1.8%). Nearly half of the country (48.42%) is between 25 and 54 years. No other group exceeds 14% except 0-14-year-olds (17.1%).

Services and industry take up more than 90% of the Chinese economy. This is similar to Germany in terms of ratio but the overall composition of service/industry is higher. The wage and hour laws, on the other hand, are rather poor compared to the rest of the civilized word, such as in Germany. China is a manufacturing Mecca, so to speak, for countries that want goods made cheap for import into their countries. The United States is one country that does so heavily. Like Germany, China.