- The French sleep as much as nine hours a night—more than any other nation in the world. The French also spend up to two hours a day sitting down to eat—again, more than any other country. (Society at a Glance, OECD)
- The number of children taken to hospital with stab wounds has risen 72 per cent in the past decade, while the number treated for gunshot wounds fell 30 per cent. (Daily Telegraph, 22nd March 2009)
- The average British household contains 2.4 televisions, 1.6 computers, 2.4 videogame consoles, 3 mobiles and 2.2 MP3 players. (Metro, 5th May 2009)
- French women have the lowest body mass index in Europe, averaging just 23.2, yet half of French women believe they weigh too much. British women had the highest BMI, averaging 26.2, but are the most comfortable with their body shape. (Marie Claire website, 27th April 2009)
- The number of people on Britain's DNA database is now 5.1m: 4m of the people on the database are white European, 400,000 are black and 280,000 are Asian. (Computing, 30th March 2009)
- Matthew Parris is the fastest MP to ever run the London marathon; in 1985 he finished in two hours, 32 minutes, 57 seconds. (BBC news website, 23rd April 2009)
- The number of people in Britain is growing by 1,000 a day. (Social Trends 2009)
- Based on the images on Flickr, the (US-based) photo sharing site, four of the seven most photographed landmarks in the world are in London: Trafalgar Square, the Tate Modern, Big Ben and the London Eye. (New Scientist, 27th April 2009)
- In Britain, 29 per cent of 20 to 34-year-old men live with their parents, compared to 18 per cent of women in that age group. (The Times, 16th April 2009)
- So far, one family has been helped by the British government's mortgage rescue scheme, launched in September with an expected cost of £285m. (The Guardian, 1st May 2009)
- In a blind taste test, only three out of 18 subjects were able to identify a sample of dog food from duck liver mousse, spam, pork liver pâté and liverwurst. ("Can People Distinguish Pate from Dog Food?" American Association of Wine Economists)
- One in five British adults has made love on the kitchen counter. (The Sun, 20th March 2009)
