Americans eat an average of 13 quarts (12.3 litres) of ice cream every year and spend $3 billion on it. [New York Times Magazine, 10th March 1996]
On 2nd October 1995 the Censorship of Publication board decided to lift a ban on Playboy magazine which had been in effect in Ireland for 36 years. [Index on Censorship, Volume 24]
More than 600 people froze to death on the streets of Moscow last winter, most in a vodka-induced alcoholic stupor. [BBC World Service]
Credit card outstanding debts in the UK rose by £2.8 billion, from £5.9 billion to £8.7 billion between 1991 and 1995-an annual increase of 10.1 per cent-as credit cards increasingly usurp the position of the overdraft as a source of short term finance. [Datamonitor]
It turns out that Cuba has the world's highest marriage rate- an annual rate of 17.7 per 1,000. [The Economist Pocket World in Figures, 1996]
Since 1978, China's consumption of pork has risen more than fourfold. In 1994, producing the 30m tonnes of pork consumed by the Chinese required 120m tonnes of grain. The world's total grain exports in 1994 were just over 200m tonnes. [World Policy Journal, Spring 1996]
The country with the youngest average age for a bride-15.8 years-is Niger. Barbados and Sweden are the countries with the highest average age-30.4 years. [The Economist Pocket World in Figures, 1996]
