Three quarters of all Oscar-winning films have been literary adaptations.
[Prospect, page 70]
In 1895, 5 per cent of Britain was covered in woodland; the figure is now 11.8 per cent.
[The Observer, 26th January 2003]
In 2002, there were 82 murders in Manhattan - fewer than there have been for a century.
[Salon, 31st December 2002]
American schools are more segregated now than they were before the introduction of civil rights laws in the 1960s.
[The Economist, 24th February 2003]
There are 400 plastic surgeons in S?o Paolo - the same number as in Britain.
[Evening Standard, 24th January 2003]
An amputated newt limb will grow back fully within ten weeks.
[Chronicle of Higher Education, 31st January 2003]
33 per cent of people in Britain say religion is important to them: more than Italy (29 per cent), Germany (21 per cent) and France (11 per cent).
[Pew Research Centre]
23 per cent of the Australian population is foreign-born. [New Zealand Herald, 17th December 2001]
Emigration of Jews from France to Israel more than doubled to 2,566 in 2002. This is the highest figure since the six day war.
[Les Echos, 16th December 2002]
70 per cent of India's arms are supplied by Russia.
[The Economist, 7th February 2003]
Denmark has five times as many pigs as humans.
[BBC4, 1st February 2003]
There are 2.5m CCTV cameras in Britain - 10 per cent of the world's total.
[The Observer, 9th February, 2003]