Trivia of the Month

From the page on Trivia of the history pages
  1. Humans generated 62 million tons of electronic waste in 2024
  2. The USA is by far the world's biggest seller of weapons (42% of the total), followed by France (11%) and Russia (10%)
  3. Rwanda, where women account for 61% of members of parliament
  4. The USA is the largest oil producer in the world, with 13.3 million barrels per day, ahead of Russia (9.5 million barrels per day) and Saudi Arabia (9.1 million), as of January 2024
  5. Bangladesh (1,165 per square km), followed by Palestine (892), Taiwan (676), Rwanda (535), South Korea (516), Lebanon (512), Burundi (476), India (435), Netherlands (424), Haiti (423) and Israel (416)
  6. Hong Kong, followed by Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai, and these Chinese cities are by far less affordable than the first non-Chinese city, Singapore, followed by London, Tokyo, Sydney, New York and San Francisco (Source: E-House China Enterprise Holdings Ltd, 2021 data)
  7. In 2017: Louisiana (12.4 per 100,000 people), followed by Missouri (9.8), Nevada (9.1), Maryland (9), Arkansas (8.6), Alaska (8.4), Alabama (8.3) and Mississippi (8.2) compared with France (1.3), Britain (1.2) and Germany (1.0), or Japan (0.2) and China (0.6). Among European countries, only Russia (9.2) has similar murder rates.
  8. There is no competition: according to the World Bank, China's GNI per capita for 2019 was $10,410 while India's GNI per capita for 2019 was only $2,120.
  9. California 39,538,223 people. Texas 29,145,505. Florida 21,538,187. New York 20,201,249 . Pennsylvania 13,011,844 . Illinois 12,812,508. Ohio 11,799,448. Georgia 10,711,908. North Carolina 10,439,388. Michigan 10,077,331.
  10. California's GDP declined only 2.77% compared with Texas' 3.47%, New York's 5.92% and Florida's 2.86% so that California's GDP almost equaled the combined GDPs of Texas and New York (despite having ten million fewer people than them)
  11. In 2019 the highest median household incomes are in: DC with $92 thousand, followed by Maryland with $87 thousand, Massachusetts with $86 thousand, New Jersey with $86, Hawaii with $83 and California with $80. The lowest median incomes are in: Mississippi with $46 thousand, West Virginia with $49, Arkansas with $49, Louisiana with $51, Alabama with $52, Kentucky with $52, Oklahoma with $54, Tennessee with $56, South Carolina with $56, North Carolina with $57, Missouri with $57. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2019 American Community Survey, 1-Year Estimates; Table ID: S1903)
  12. In 2019 median household income in the USA was $68,703 (source: http://www.census.gov/topics/income-poverty/income.html) and median individual income was $43,206.00 (source: https://dqydj.com/average-median-top-individual-income-percentiles/#2020_Individual_Income_Percentiles_for_the_United_States)
  13. The most expensive cities of 2020 are: Paris, Hong Kong, Zurich, Singapore, Osaka, Tel Aviv, New York, Geneva, Los Angeles, Copenhagen (according to the Economist magazine)
  14. China. Between 2009 and 2020 China's billionaires have increased their wealth by 1,146%, the largest percentage in the world (according to PWC)
  15. Australia is the world's largest exporter of both coal and gas (2019)
  16. The world's most polluted countries are Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, and 22 of the world's most polluted 30 cities are in India, according to research by IQ AirVisual (2019)
  17. Switzerland, Sweden, USA, Netherlands, Britain, Finland, Denmark, Singapore, Germany, Israel, South Korea, Ireland, Hong Kong, mainland China Japan, France, Canada, Luxemburg, Norway, Iceland (according to the World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovation Index of 2019)
  18. Only Saudi Arabia and Russia produce more oil than Texas in 2018.
  19. China owes more than $1 trillion of US treasury securities ($1.4 trillion if one includes Hong Kong), followed by Japan (also more than one trillion), then Ireland, Brazil , Britain, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, etc. (See Treasury of the USA data).
  20. In 2016 around 55 million people died, of which 17.6 million of cardiovascular diseases and 9 million of cancers
  21. In 2016 the top five economies accounted for 54% of the world's GDP while the 92 smallest economies accounted for 1%
  22. Singapore (154 Mbps), followed by South Korea (125), compared with the USA 71 (Source: TechCrunch)
  23. Beef accounts for 37% of all methane released into the air by humankind, and methane contributes 23 times more than carbon dioxide to global warming.
  24. 250,000 tons as of 2017, all in temporary facilities (Finland is the only country that is building a permanent storage that will last more than 100,000 years)
  25. Afghanistan: 100% of Muslims want shariah as the official law of the land. In Iraq it's 90%. In Malaysia, Pakistan and Morocco it's more than 80%. The only Muslim-majority country where fewer than 50% of Muslims want shariah as the official law is Turkey. (according to the Pew Research Center, 2017)
  26. China's mobile payments was $5.5 trillion in 2016, roughly 50 times the size of the USA's market
  27. California, followed by Texas and Florida (CDC statistics of 2014)
  28. Syria 50,000 - Mexico 23,000 - Afghanistan 17,000 - Iraq 16,000
  29. 317 according to a Washington Post research
  30. Singapore has the highest-achieving secondary (as well as primary) pupils in international education tests in maths and science, according to Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 2016: 1. Singapore; 2. South Korea; 3. Taiwan; 4. Hong Kong; 5. Japan; 6. Russia; 7. Kazakhstan; 8. Canada; 9. Ireland; 10. United States.
  31. California (population 38 million), by far: 1,813 in 2014 (that's actually down from a decade earlier, when 2,394 people were murdered out of a much smaller population), followed by Texas (population 27 million) with 1,389, and then Florida with 1158 and Illinois with 792 and New York state (population 20 million) with 662; but per capita the southern states are the most dangerous: Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Georgia, Florida, Oklahoma (See the CDC website)
  32. Rapidly decreasing
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  33. Italy, according to the European Commission (see their ranking)
  34. Myanmar is the world's fastest-growing economy in 2016, according to the IMF's World Economic Outlook http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2016/01/index.htm
  35. The average number of hours worked in China per worker in 2015 was 2,432 hours and 1,767 in the USA, 1,372 in Germany and 1,495 in France
  36. Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela according to the Economist of march 2016
  37. New York, followed by Hong Kong, Moscow, Beijing and London (See this Forbes article); but note that most cities are very big, except San Francisco and Palo Alto. San Francisco has less than one million people and Palo Alto has only 50,000. Basically, Palo Alto has 0.04% of Beijing's population but almost the same billionaire wealth.
  38. In 2013 35% of African immigrants had a college degree versus 19% of African-Americans (and 30% of US citizens in general)
  39. 1. India (48.7% of patents are filed by Indians living abroad), 2. Russia (25.9%), followed by Canada and Britain, 5. China (17.2%) according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (2014)
  40. 1. Israel - $3.1bn, 2. Afghanistan - $2.2bn, 3. Egypt - $1.6bn, 4. Pakistan - $1.2bn, 5. Nigeria - $693m, 6. Jordan - $671m, 7. Iraq - $573m, 8. Kenya - $564m, 9. Tanzania - $553m, 10. Uganda -$456m (2014 data)
  41. China is the second biggest military spender after the USA, way ahead of Russia. Then comes Saudi Arabia, which spends more than France, Japan and Britain. (see this diagram)
  42. 35.9% of Indians suffer from Major Depressive Episodes, one of the highest rates in the world, whereas China is at the very bottom of the list at 12%, according to a World Health Organization report
  43. Only two countries have a majority of women in their parliament: Rwanda (63.8%) and Bolivia (53.1%). The largest democracies don't fare too well: the USA is 76th (19.3%), Indonesia is 88th (16.9%), India is 115th (11.4%), Brazil is 124th (9.9%), and Japan is 130th (8.1%). Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union.
  44. Hillary Clinton is the most admired woman in the USA and Barack Obama is the most admired man (second is the Pope but also note that #10 is Russian president Putin) according to a Gallup Poll (2014)
  45. Xiaomi, a Chinese company (see this Wall Street Journal table)
  46. China, followed by the USA (per capita, however, Muslim countries such as Chad, United Arab Emirates and Mali are way ahead of China and of the West, and even India comes before any European country) - see this Economist statistics
  47. Rick Perry, governor of Texas, has signed off on 279 executions (and counting)
  48. Total emissions from global livestock in 2014 was 7.1 gigatonnes of Co2-equiv per year (65% of it coming from cattle alone), representing 14.5% of all anthropogenic GHG emissions which is roughly the same amount due to transportation, but it is rising faster than carbon emissions due to transportation (Source: FAO).
  49. Singapore, followed by Switzerland, Australia, Hong Kong, Sweden, Canada, USA, Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Germany according to the Economist (2014); France is 18th, Britain is 21st, Japan 22nd, Italy 44th, India 48th, China 50th, Russia 64th
  50. Between 2009-2013 India led in global arms imports with 14% of total. China was 2nd, Pakistan 3rd. The volume of Indian imports of major weapons rose by 111% between 2004-08 and 2009-13, and its share of the volume of international arms imports increased from 7% to 14%. The major suppliers of arms to India in 2009-13 were Russia (accounting for 75% of imports) and the US (7%). China was the main supplier of weapons (54%) to Pakistan. (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute)
  51. The USA, followed by Saudi Arabia and Russia
  52. Russia, followed by Nigeria, Malaysia, Ukraine (according to the Economist of 2014 - see this page)
  53. Mainland China, whose 50 richest members are worth almost $100 billion or 60 times as much as the 50 richest members of the US parliament (2014).
  54. In 2010 bicycle-related injuries led to nearly 800 deaths in the USA and more than 2000 deaths in the European Union. By comparison car accidents killed 32,885 people that year in the USA and about the same number in the whole EU.
  55. Italy, the only euro country where GDP per capita has declined since 1999, as shown in this diagram by the Economist
  56. The USA, followed by China, Russia, British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, Singapore, Britain, Canada, Brazil, and Ireland (See this 2013 report)
  57. The USA (more than 17,000 museums and 850 million yearly visitors), followed by China (3900 museums and 500 million visitors), Japan (5700, 161 million) and Germany (6300, 110 million). Note that Canada has more yearly visitors its museums (59 million) than Spain (57.5 million) and almost twice as many as Italy (33 million). Source: The Economist (21 december 2013)
  58. China, followed by the USA, Germany and Britain, whereas almost nobody has faith in the capitalist system in France (link)
  59. Italy, with $250 per MWh, which is more than double the cost in Germany and four times in the USA (Economist, september 2012)
  60. If you live in the USA, you are four times more likely to get killed than in Britain, and six times more likely than in Germany, and 13 times more likely than in Japan; and you are much much much more likely to get killed with guns (guns only account for about 10% of Britain's murders versus almost 70% in the USA)
  61. Israel (5.7 million) finally passed the USA (5.3 million) and third is France (half a million)
  62. Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden and Finland (according to BlackRock in 2012)
  63. 19,000 murders were committed in Venezuela in 2011, the highest murder rate in South America and four times that of Mexico
  64. NIOC (Iran), then Saudi Aramco, PDVSA (Venezuela), Kuwait Petroleum, Gazprom (Russia), Qatar Petroleum, Iraq's national companies, ADNOC (United Arab Emirates)
  65. China, then United Arab Emirates, then Norway, then Saudi Arabia, then Singapore, then Kuwait, then Hong Kong (december 2011)
  66. The USA has 11 aircraft carriers, Italy 2, Russia 1, France 1, India 1, Spain 1, Brazil 1 and now China 1 (2011)
  67. About 14%. There are 440 commercial nuclear power reactors operating in 30 countries. The USA is number one with 100,000 Megawatts, followed by France with 60,000 and Japan with 47,000, then Russia, Germany and South Korea. Among the main economies of the world, only Italy produces no nuclear energy.
  68. Iraq: 21. Syria: 22. Egypt: 24. Saudi Arabia: 25. Morocco: 27. Tunisia: 30.
  69. A record 700,000 foreign students enrolled in USA schools in 2010, of which 128,000 from China and 105,000 from India
  70. Singapore (2010)
  71. USA $11 trillion, Luxembourg $2,3 trillion, France $1.8 trillion, Australia $1.2 trillion, Singapore $1.1 trillion (if these two merge, they become #2).
  72. 40 Democrats and only 1 Republican (as of october 2010)
  73. Pakistan, second after China (2010)
  74. 25% of Iranian films are made by women, whereas less than 5% of films in the USA are made by women (2010)
  75. The USA (2009)
  76. 16047 people are murdered in Venezuela in 2009, compared with 4644 in Iraq
  77. Lebanon (in 2009)
  78. 16 terawatts (2006)
  79. China, followed by Australia, South Africa, the USA and Russia
  80. France: a number of islands in the Caribbeans and off the coast of Canada are considered overseas regions, Guyane in South America is considered an overseas region, ditto for a number of islands in the Pacific and ditto for Reunion off the coast of Africa. They all have representation in the Parliament of France and the right to vote in elections to the European Parliament.
  81. The USA economy grew by 63% between 1991 and 2009, compared with 35% for France, 22% for Germany and 16% for Japan over the same period. In 1975, the USA accounted for 26.3% of world GDP. In 2009 the USA actually accounts for a slightly higher share of world output: 26.7%. However, notice that the population of the USA is growing faster than the population of Japan and Europe.
  82. In 2008 the USA sold $37.8 billion (68.4% of all global arms business), followed by Italy with $3.7 billion and Russia with $3.5 billion
  83. About 65% of the world's foreign-exchange reserves are in USA dollars, about 26% are in euros. China alone holds one third of the world's foreign-exchange reserves. Developing countries have $4 trillion of it, 70% more than Western countries and Japan combined (2009).
  84. Japan. See this graph.
  85. In 2009 there were 2 in the Supreme Court, 11 in the Senate (ten Democrats and one Republican), 26 in the House of Representatives (all 26 are Democrats). There are no Jews in the Obama cabinet of ministers/secretaries. (There are a few on the staff of his White House advisors). And there were no Jews in the George W Bush cabinet (except briefly for attorney general Michael Mukasey). All the Jews in the GW Bush administration were at lower levels of the hierarchy (e.g., undersecretary). The USA has never had a Jewish president or vice-president. On the other hand, it has now a president who was raised in a Muslim country.
  86. They are both very high, and were still above 50% in 2003, but Pakistan's is way higher than India, probably still 47% in 2008 (Source: Unesco)
  87. Morocco (5.7 billion cubic tons, followed by China with 4.1 and South Africa with 1.5)
  88. Rwanda, with over 50%, followed by Sweden (almost 50%), then Spain, New Zealand, Nepal, South Africa, Germany. Even the Islamic republic of Pakistan (22%) comes before the USA (less than 20%). The lowest percentage is in Saudi Arabia: zero percent.
  89. The world currently consumes 16 terawatts (trillion watts) of energy, according to Saul Griffith
  90. Jews accounted for about 2% of the USA population in 2008, but there were 43 Jews in Congress: 13 senators out of 100 and 30 house representatives out of 440
  91. Murder rates in Latin America
  92. Tokyo's GDP is $1.19 trillion, with New York a close second at $1.13 trillion, followed by Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris and London, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers
  93. The 2007 estimates are: 1 Indonesia 205 million Muslims (out of a population of 234 million), 2 Pakistan 160 million (out of 164 million), 3 India 154 million (out of 1.1 billion), 4 Bangladesh 132 million (out of 150 million), 5 Egypt 75 million (out of 80 million), 6 Turkey 70 million (out of 71 million), 7 Iran 64 million (out of 65 million), 8 Nigeria 58 million (out of 124 million). Only one of these is Arab: Egypt. On the other hand the countries that are at least 99% Islamic are mostly Arab: Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia...
  94. In the Mojave Desert of California. It was inaugurated in 2005 and produces 354MW of electricity, which is more than all the rest of commercial production of solar energy in the world.
  95. In july 2008 it was Germany (+$286 billion over 12 months), followed by China ($248b), Russia ($164b), Saudi Arabi ($150b), Japan ($101b), Norway ($74b), Netherlands ($60b). The countries with the biggest trade deficits were the USA (-$835b), Britain (-$185b), Spain (-$151b), India (-$88b).
  96. The USA imports slightly more than 50% of the oil it uses, 20.7 million barrels per day. Therefore it would need to draw about 10 million barrels per day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, that in 2007 held about 700 million barrels. Therefore the USA would survive a mere 70 days, or a little over two months.
  97. $400 trillion (source: the International Swaps and Derivatives Association). That is about 10 times the world's gross national product and twice the total world wealth. JP Morgan alone owned $77 trillion. Over-the-counter derivates were even higher, at more than 500 trillion dollars.
  98. South Korea (it used to be the USA for many decades)
  99. Denmark, followed by Sweden, Switzerland, USA (France is 21st) according to a study by INSEAD (a French university)
  100. Italy at 8.3%, followed by Sweden at 3.6% (See http://www.lewrockwell.com/barnhart/barnhart31.html )
  101. Italy (150,000), followed by Spain (140,000) and France (130,000). By comparison, the USA has about 500,000, but with a much larger population (from http://www.avert.org/eurosum.htm )
  102. Oman 11.40%, followed by Qatar 10.00%, Saudi Arabia 10.00%, Iraq 8.60%, Jordan 8.60%, Israel 7.30% (the USA's is 4.1%)
  103. The USA, about 70% of the world's attorneys. Italy has 1/10th with a population that is 1/5, so about half of the USA's per capita number. Britain has slightly more, France slightly less.
  104. Italy, about twice as many police officers as the USA per capita
  105. Italy, with 760 wiretap requests per million residents, followed by Holland. The USA, by comparison, ranks very low, with only 6 requests per million residents.
  106. German-Americans 23%; Irish-Americans 16%; Hispanic-Americans 13% (if one considers all of Latin America as just one group); African-Americans 12.9%; Italian-Americans 6%; Polish-Americans 3.5%; Jews 2%; Native Americans 1.5%; Arab-Americans 1.2%; Chinese-Americans 1%; Vietnamese-Americans 0.4%; etc (source: USA census)
  107. Japan, with 110 warships against Britain's 44
  108. Brazil, followed by China and the USA and most Far Eastern countries (Gini coefficient, according to the Economist of 11 August 2007)
  109. $41 billion a year, enough to feed all the millions of children who are starving in Africa.
  110. 19: the USA with 15.3% of GDP, followed by France and Germany with about 11% (but in the USA the money mainly comes from individuals, whereas in France and Germany it comes mainly from the government via taxes)
  111. 19: the USA has 12, Britain 3, France 2, Russia and India 1, China zero.
  112. Iran 93% (61M), Pakistan 25% (30M), India 2.7% (26M), Iraq 55% (11M), Turkey 15% (6M), Afghanistan 15% (3.5M), Yemen 36% (3M), Saudi Arabia 10% (2.5M), Lebanon 45% (1M), Kuwait 30% (0.5M), etc. Total of 150 million.
  113. Japan, followed by Switzerland and the USA, according to the Economist (may 2007)
  114. In 2006 the USA sold $8.1 billion worth of weapons to developing countries, or 48% of the worldwide weapons total
  115. In 2006 there were 950 billionaires in the world, with a combined wealth of $3.5 trillion
  116. 29,000 people are murdered every year in the USA, versus 168 in Canada (and only 100 in Britain). Even adjusting the numbers for the different population (the USA has about ten times more people than Canada), a USA resident is 15 times more likely to be killed by a gun than a Canadian resident.
  117. China (1010), Iran (177), Pakistan (82), Iraq (65), Sudan (65), USA (53), Saudi Arabia (39), Yemen (20). Note: 128 countries (i.e. the vast majority) have abolished the death penalty.
  118. The USA, where about 2.2 million people are in jail [2006].
  119. The USA, where individual gifts to charities are about 1.6% of gdp, followed by Britain (0.7%), Canada (ditto), Australia,. Germany (0.3%) and France (0.2%) rank low.
  120. Oslo, followed by Paris, Copenhagen, London, Tokyo. The most expensive USA city is New York, which is 28th overall, followed by Chicago (36) and Los Angeles (41)[2006]
  121. Azerbaijan (18%), followed by Sudan (12%), Angola (10%), Mauritania, Liberia, Kazakhstan, CHina, Armenia, Ethiopia, United Arab Emirates (according to the Economist)
  122. Rwanda, with 48.8%. The USA is 68th (85% of the USA Congress is male and 15% is female, a lower percentage than in Iraq and Afghanistan)
  123. Marijuana ($35 billion, compared with $23.3 billion worth of corn, $17.6 billion worth of soybeans, $12.2 billion worth of hay, $11.1 billion worth of vegetables, $7.4 billion worth of wheat)
  124. Mandarin (1051 millions), followed by Hindi/Urdu (604), English (510), Spanish (425), Arabic (255), Russian (254), Portuguese (218), Bengali (215), Bahasa (175), French (130), Japanese (127), German (123), Farsi (110), Punjabi (103).
  125. Zero (Business Week, september 2006). The health care sector accounted for 1.7 million new jobs. The rest of the non-governmental economy accounted for zero (construction created almost one million jobs, but technology lost more than one million)
  126. The USA's share of carbon emissions was 39% in 1952. It had decreased to 23% in 2002 (Scientific American, september 2006) and it is estimated at 21% in 2006 (China's has increased from less than 1% to 15% and is projected to pass the USA's by 2025).
  127. If one also considers the government-owned companies, then Aromco (Saudi Arabia) has the largest reserves (in 2005), followed by the National Iranian Oil Company, the Iraqi National Oil Company, the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation and Petroleos de Venezuela (Exxon Mobil, the first USA company, is a distant 14th)
  128. France, almost 80 million, followed by Spain, USA, China, Italy and Britain (Italy is the only one that is losing tourists, while China, Britain and the USA had the highest increase in 2005)
  129. Singapore, about 200% of GDP according to the IMF in 2006 (South Korea and Malaysia also have exports that exceed their GDP, meaning that they also export a lot of what they import)
  130. Germany, according to a Pew Center poll
  131. Italy with 58%, obtained by dividing the number of people who work divided by number of people who could be working, whether they don't work because they don't want to, because they are invalid, because they are pre-retired or because they can't find jobs (source: Eurostat, 2005)
  132. The USA (2.1M) followed by China (1.5M) and Russia (828K)
  133. Saudi Arabia, that purchased $39.6 billion worth of military equipment in the 1990s (Source: Federation of American Scientists)
  134. The GDP of the USA (3.6% versus 3.3% for the rest of the world), according to "ThompsonOne Analytics)
  135. Lake Baikal in Russia, where Russia started building an oil pipeline in march 2006
  136. About 50,000 (Source: World's Jewish population)
  137. Tobacco (300%), followed by mining (200%), health care (100%) and oil (100%). Source: ABN
  138. The ambassador of Saudi Arabia
  139. Spain, by nearly 42%, followed by Portugal (37%). Canada's emissions increased 24%. The USA posted one of the lowest increases: 13%.
  140. USA Americans, Australias, Spaniards and Japanese work about 1,800 hours a year. The British work about 1,650 hours, Italians and Swedes work less than 1,600 hours, Germans and French work only a bit more than 1,400 hours. (Source: OECD 2004)
  141. Colombia with 67 per 100,000 people, followed by Jamaica with 59 and South Africa with 40 (the USA has a murder rate of 6 per 100,000, and Britain, France and Germany have less than 2), but Iraq's murder rate is unknown
  142. Germany, whose exports were about one trillion dollars in 2004 (10% of world exports) and whose trade surplus was greater than those of China, Japan and India combined (second was the USA, third Japan and fourth China)
  143. Holland, according to CNN: Amsterdam $1.68 per liter or $6.48 per gallon, Oslo $6.27, Milan $5.96, Stockholm $5.80, London $5.79, Frankfurt $5.57, Paris $5.54, Madrid $4.55, Tokyo $4.24 (USA cities have the lowest prices in the West, less than $2.5)
  144. India, according to a poll by the NOP of june 2005 (followed by Chinese and Philipinos)
  145. China, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center of june 2005
  146. Italy in 1911 during the invasion of Libya.
  147. Japan, with 3.1% of GDP (a percentage even higher than the USA), followed by South Korea with 2.5%. China's investment in research is only 1.2% (Source: OECD 2004)
  148. More than 20, and 76 allow USA military planes to land (source: Arkin's book "Code Names")
  149. Average per-capita income in Iraq skyrocketed from $322 to $422 between 2003 and 2004 (source: United Nations)
  150. In the 1970s the average American needed to work 102 minutes to earn the money for a week's commute, today he only needs to work 42 minutes (Source: S&P)
  151. It was 14% in 1981, but only 7% in 2004
  152. China, where 3400 people were executed in 2004 (source: Amnesty International)
  153. Singapore, where 2.3 babies for every thousand die before the first year. The USA is 42nd, with 7 deaths per one thousand, coming after all European countries, and even Cuba.
  154. $5 billion (yes, billion) every day (yes, every day)
  155. 5 millions, according to the 2004 study of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
  156. 246 millions, according to "Stolen Childhoods"
  157. Macao, China, that is projected to surpass Las Vegas
  158. 34
  159. Per hour worked, the French are 5% more productive than the Americans
  160. Rick Warren's "The Purpose-Driven Life", that sold seventeen million copies in its first nineteen months (almost one million copies a month)
  161. USA (Afghanistan had a woman running for president in 2004)
  162. Switzerland (125% of GNP), followed by Holland (more than 100% of GNP), Britain and the USA (barely above 50% of GNP)
  163. $1.2 trillion (about $4,000 for each USA citizen)
  164. USA
  165. 15-20 cm
  166. More than 20 tonnes
  167. The USA (2%). China (84%)
  168. Colombia: 0.63 per 1000 people (followed by South Africa: 0.51 per 1000 people)
  169. China: +4590% (yes, four thousands percent)
  170. China
  171. Adolf Hitler (May 21, 1935)