- In 1983, LA had three times as many workers in the aerospace industry as in the movie industry. By 2000, the proportions were reversed. [Prospect, page 40]
- In the US, 12 per cent of Coca-Cola is consumed with or for breakfast. [The Great America Food Almanac by Irena Chalmers]
- When India's Sachin Tendulkar bats against Pakistan in test matches, the television audience in India exceeds the total population of Europe. [The Observer, 11th January 2004]
- The Scottish suicide rate is almost double that of England: 21 per 100,000 people compared with 12 per 100,000. [Financial Times, 16th January 2004]
- According to some semitic language specialists, the 72 "virgins" that Muslim martyrs can expect to encounter in heaven may actually be "raisins"-owing to a long-established mistranslation of the Koran. [Newsweek International, 28th July 2002]
- 57 per cent of marriages in Sudan, 50 per cent in Pakistan and 36 per cent in Saudi Arabia are between first cousins. [After the Empire by Emmanuel Todd]
- In France, no more than 2,000 Muslim schoolgirls out of 1.8m wore a headscarf to school in 2002. 49 per cent of Muslim women are in favour of the ban. [The Times, 3rd February 2004/The Economist, 7th February 2004]
- Three quarters of the 35,000 appeals against congestion charge penalty notices made by London drivers have been successful. [The Guardian, 14th February 2004]
- Of the Nobel prizes awarded between 1951 to 2000, 32 per cent of awards for medicine, 32 per cent for physics, 30 per cent for economics and 29 per cent of all awards for science went to Jews. Jews make up less than 0.5 per cent of the world's population. [Human Accomplishment by Charles Murray]
