Non-resident ethnic Chinese represent 4 per cent (55m) of China's population. Their GNP of $450 billion is higher than China's. [World Link, June 1997]
The number of aircraft carriers owned by China is-zero. [Prospect July 1997, Owen Harries, page 30]
The number of births by caesarean section in the US is around one third. In Britain it is about 17 per cent and rising. [BBC Radio 5 Live]
Fourteen per cent of black men in the US are currently or permanently barred from voting because of conviction for a felony. [Herald Tribune, 31st January 1997]
Teenage discretionary spending in the US will grow from $75 billion this year to $77 billion next year. [The Economist, 7th June 1997]
To produce half of the current energy consumption in the US using solar power, 2 per cent of the American land surface would have to be covered with photovoltaic
panels. [New York Review of Books, 29th May 1997]
One in three teenage girls in Britain has at least two A-levels, compared to one in four boys. [Evening Standard, 3rd June 1997]
In Houston, Texas, of 150,000 labourers looking for work each day, 85 per cent are illegal immigrants [The Economist, 7th June 1997]
Russian doctors estimate that the population will fall from 147.5m now to 120m in 2050. [Independent, 11th June 1997]
