- While London's domestic gardens take up only a fifth of the capital's surface area, they contain nearly 70 per cent of its 5.5m trees. [Prospect, p80]
- In 2003, Japan accepted 26 asylum seekers out of 2,694 applications. [New Statesman, 21st February 2005]
- In the US, half of all children aged 4-6 have played video games, and a quarter say they do so regularly. [Boston Globe magazine, 20th February 2005]
- In Britain, under-25s save more as a percentage of their income than any other age group. [The Guardian, 2nd March 2005]
- Brussels's unemployment rate is 22 per cent. [Commentary, February 2005]
- The term "blockbuster" was coined in the 1920s, meaning a film whose queue of customers at the box office was so long that it could not be contained on a single city block. [Washington Post, 27th February 2005]
- In the US, on the third and fourth days after heavy-weight championship bouts, the homicide rate rises by an average 9 per cent. [Happiness by Richard Layard]
- Per capita sales of board games in Germany are higher than anywhere else in the world. [The Economist, 19th February 2005]
- Crematoria are responsible for up to 16 per cent of Britain's total mercury emissions. [The Observer, 20th Feb]
- Since 1945, the Japanese on average have increased in height by nearly five inches. [TLS, 25th February 2005]
- London's Chinese population is the biggest in Europe. [The Times, 14th February 2005]
- The average weekly wage of a white British woman in 2002 was £180, compared with £199 for African women and £210 for Caribbean women. For Pakistani and Bangladeshi women it was £140. [The Times, 20th February 2005]
