Twice as many people die from falling out of a building than from food poisoning each year, four times as many drown and ten times more are murdered. [Prue Leith, RSA lecture, October 1996]
The administration of the European Union spends one third of its income on translation from and into all the 11 official languages. [Eric Hobsbawm, Living as Equals (ed. Paul Barker) OUP, 1996]
Negative equity is expected to affect just 250,000 home owners by the end of 1997-down from 1m at the end of 1995. Repayments on a ?40,000 mortgage in 1996 are 16 per cent lower than in 1992. [Findings, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, September 1996]
"Deep greens," those who believe that "we should protect the environment at all costs, regardless of economic consideration" number 12 per cent of the British adult population. Nine per cent of middle-class households are deep green and 15 per cent of working class households. [Greening the Millenium, Bob Worcester, Mori]
The world's insurance industry saw claims for weather-related disasters rise from $16 billion in the 1980s to $48 billion for just the first half of the 1990s.
[Vital Signs 1996-97, Earthscan]
The country with the worst record on economic growth 1985-94 was Georgia where GDP declined by 25.6 per cent. [World in Figures 1997, The Economist]
The percentage of over-16 smokers in the UK fell from 45 per cent in 1974 to 27 per cent in 1994 [World in Figures 1997]
