- A third to a half of America's Christians have changed denominations in their lives. [Prospect, p 53]
- By law, every child in Belgium must take harmonica lessons. [Observer Music Monthly, 16th November 2003]
- Only 9 per cent of South Africans speak English as a first language, and only 22 per cent understand it at the level used in parliament. [New Statesman, 27th October 2003]
- There are now twice as many Israeli settlers in the occupied territories (4 per cent of the population) as there are Israelis living on kibbutzim (2 per cent). [Los Angeles Times, 30th November 2003]
- 82 per cent of Britons believe the income gap between rich and poor is too large; a rise of ten percentage points since 1983. But in the same period, the percentage who believe the government should act to redistribute income has slightly fallen, to 38 per cent. [British Social Trends]
- In 1982, a law was passed in Zimbabwe banning jokes about President Canaan Banana's name. [The Economist, 29th November 2003]
- During George W Bush's state visit, muggings in London went up by 20 per cent. [Scotland Yard]
- During the 1864-70 Lopez war between Paraguay and the triple alliance (Argentina, Brazil and Peru), Paraguay's population fell from 1.3m to 221,000. [Essential Militaria by Nicholas Hobbes, Atlantic]
- 80 per cent of Russian citizens describe themselves as middle class, even though a quarter are living below the poverty line. [UPI]
- Of the 22 players who made up England's rugby World Cup final team, six were privately educated, seven went to grammar schools and nine to comprehensives. But two thirds of the British athletes who won medals at the 2000 Olympics were educated privately. [Daily Mail, 24th November 2003/Sunday Telegraph, 30th November 2003]
