The UK has 49,000 millionaires and 1.6m "high net worth individuals" (someone who holds £50,000 or more in liquid assets). The fastest growth in the latter is expected among foreigners living in the UK, and divorcees. [Datamonitor]
More males than females are born in the UK-5 per cent more in 1991-but for every man aged 82 there are two women. [A New Social Atlas of Britain, John Wiley]
Britons are spending about £1m a day on frozen dinners and meals for one. [Datamonitor]
China has increased its military budget by 40 per cent in real terms in the past five years.[International Affairs, Jan. 1996, US Defence Dept]
In October 1995 Japan's self-defence agency presented a draft document proposing a 10-20 per cent cut in Japan's defence forces. [International Affairs, Jan. 1996]
The total cost of destroying the US's chemical weapons is estimated at $11.9bn. The weapons cost ten times more to destroy in the US than they do in Germany. [International Affairs, Jan. 1996, Chemical Weapons Convention Bulletin]
As of November 1995 the United Nations was owed $2.6bn by member states. Of this sum $645m was for the regular budget and $1.95bn for peace-keeping operations and the International Tribunals.[United Nations]
Egypt receives nearly $2bn in direct US aid every year, two-thirds of which consists of military aid. [The Middle East Journal, Winter 1995]
American companies controlled 72 per cent of all new arms sales agreements with developing countries in 1993. Russia and France each sell less than one eighth as much weaponry to the developing world as the US does. [World Policy Journal, Summer 1995]
