London is drier than Dallas, Barcelona, Rome and Istanbul. It gets half as much rain as Sydney. Thames Water, November 2011
More than 30 million Chinese people live in caves. LA Times, 18th March 2012
The teen pregnancy rate in England and Wales is the lowest since 1969. BBC, 28th February 2012
In 1981, Mauritania became the last country to abolish slavery. CNN, March 2012
Rwanda is the only nation in which females make up the majority of parliamentarians. The Independent, 4th March 2012
Andy Warhol’s artwork accounts for one-sixth of contemporary-art sales. Intelligent Life, December 2011
Employed women in the UK aged between 22 and 29 earn more per hour than men of the same age. UCAS, October 2011
Of all commercial disputes in English courts, 81 per cent have at least one foreign party. The Times, 10th April 2012
Rembrandt sold his dead wife’s headstone and burial plot to pay for the grave of his mistress. The Australian, 14th April 2009
Heading east from Westminster on the Jubilee line, male life expectancy goes down a year every stop for the next eight stops. LRB, 5th April 2012