On the night before the Queen's coronation in 1953, 30,000 people slept in the Mall. [Museum of London]
The US has 39 per cent of the world's retail space. Britain has 31 per cent of Europe's retail space. The British now have 10 square feet of retail space per person. [The Observer, 14th March 2002]
Of the 30 members of Saudi Arabia's Council of Ministers, 21 have degrees awarded in the US and 16 of these are PhDs. [Transatlantic Futures, 2nd April 2002]
Since 1969, a citizen of Northern Ireland has been over 200 times more likely to die from sectarian violence than a citizen of India. [Prospect, p65]
Ten per cent of people are left-handed and 20 per cent are left-footed. [Right Hand, Left Hand, Chris McManus, Weidenfeld 2002]
Worldwide, 20 per cent of marriages are between cousins. [Slate, 10th April 2002]
Of all the words in the Oxford English Dictionary, 99 per cent derive from languages other than Old English. However, words that derive from Old English make up 62 per cent of the words most used. (The Power of Babel, John McWhorter, Heinemann 2002)
New York has almost 10,000 fewer cabs than it did 70 years ago. [New Yorker, 18th March 2002]
The Coca-Cola brand name was estimated to be worth around 60 per cent of the company's value in 2000. [The Big Lie, Chuck Anderson, Random Thoughts 2002]
In 2000, English-speaking internet users were outnumbered for the first time. Around 211m non-English speakers had internet access, compared to only 192m English speakers. [AT Kearney, 2002]
In the US, residents of the state of Utah buy pianos at roughly five times the national rate. [Los Angeles Times, 14th April 2002]
