[violentvinyl]

I would posit that in the US, new drivers are "grand-fathered" in to automatics. There is no driving license restriction in the US for transmission types, so there is little value in learning to drive a manual before your test (you could always learn later if you wanted to). Couple that with the fact that often a new driver's first car is second hand from a more sensible parent or family member who wanted the ease of use of an automatic, repeat for a generation or two, and suddenly you have very few new drivers who even have an opportunitty to learn how to drive a manual.