In Japan, more households have electronic toilet seats than personal computers.
[Japan Almanac 1997]
In 1995, the populations of Europe and Africa were almost exactly equal. In 2050, Africans will outnumber Europeans by more than three to one. [Prospect, page 50]
In 1949, there were 160,000 young Conservatives; today, there are 3,000. [Blue Skies Ahead, Centre for Policy Studies]
According to a survey by Gallup, 58 per cent of Britons believe that Britain did more good than harm to her colonies. [British Public Opinion, Mori, August/September 1997]
In the last five years, the official name of Afghanistan has changed three times. [Far Eastern Economic Review, 6th November 1997]
Colombia's ten-year civil war killed roughly as many people as Britain lost in the entire second world war. [Prospect, page 30]
One quarter of Russia's nearly 2,000 banks are owned by major criminal organisations.
[US Drug Enforcement Administration]
The South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu earned $1.2m, 10 per cent of its 1996 national revenue, by selling its telephone country-code to American sex hotlines.
[Far Eastern Economic Review,
6th November 1997]
Vineyards comprise 30m acres, or 1 per cent, of the world's cultivated land. [The Collector, August/September 1997]
