1 in every 3,400 people in the US is an Elvis impersonator.
Ref: Prospect (UK).

1 in every 32 people in America is in prison.
Ref: Daily Times (Pakistan).

According to the General Social Survey (US) there has been a 300% increase in the number of Americans that have absolutely nobody to talk to about their problems.
Ref: American Sociological Review (US).

The number of prisoners in the UK has increased by 38% since 1997.
Ref: The Guardian (UK).

By the year 2025 people aged over 60 will outnumber those aged under 25 in the UK.
Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK).

Between 2001 and 2005, China accounted for 50% of all global economic growth.
Ref: The Sunday Times (UK).

5% of Californians are currently searching for a meaningless physical relationship.
Ref: Forbes (US).

90% of men that have walked on the moon were once Boy Scouts.
Ref: Prospect (UK).

10% of young people in the UK do not think that their lives are worth living.
Ref: The Prince’s Trust (UK).

85% of primary school teachers in the UK are female and 39% of boys aged 8-11 have no male teachers whatsoever.
Ref: Sunday Telegraph (UK).

Sharks kill around 10 people each year. Failing coconuts kill roughly 150.
Ref: George Burgess, University of Florida (US).

According to an Australian survey, 63% of people feel that they are overloaded with information and 40% have difficulty remembering more than 3 phone numbers.
Ref: Daily Telegraph (Aus).

There are 500,000 semi-automatic machine guns in private hands in Switzerland.
Ref: Prospect (UK).

In the US, 11.9% of black men aged 25-29 are in prison versus 3.9% of Hispanics and 1.7% of white males in the same age group.
Ref: AP.

There is expected to be a 36% increase in the number of people aged 75+ in Japan between 2005 and 2015. During the same period the number of people aged under 5 years-of-age is predicted to decline by 13%.
Ref: McKinsey Quarterly (US).

The increase in the world’s population between now and 2050 will be roughly the same as the entire world population in 1950.
Ref: Guardian (UK).

There was a 25% increase in the number of teachers buying liability insurance in the US between 2000 and 2005.
Ref: Atlantic Monthly (US).

There will be a 33% increase in the number of Germans aged 75+ between 2005 and 2015.
Ref: McKinsey Quarterly (US).

Over a quarter of English adults bought at least one English flag in June of 2005.
Ref: The Guardian (UK).

70% of American students claim that religion is either “somewhat important” or “very important in their lives.”
Ref: San Jose Mercury News (US).

31% of teenagers in America think they’ll be famous some day.
Ref: Psychology Today (US).

By 2050 there will be more Egyptians alive than Russians.
Ref: Daily Telegraph (UK).

A survey in the UK says that 63% of girls aged 15-19 think that being a glamour model is the ideal profession.
Ref: Sydney Morning Herald (Aus).

92% of the land in the UK is still classified as countryside.
Ref: The Spectator (UK).

The number of US university students learning a foreign language has fallen from 16% to 8.5% over the past thirty years.
Ref: International Herald Tribune (US).

In the mid 1950s 9% of adults were single in the US. The figure is now 44%
Ref: Innovation Watch (US).

In 1998 there were roughly 12 pro-terrorism websites worldwide. Last year there were roughly 4,700.
Ref: Harpers (US).

In 1992, 31% of people living in the UK described themselves as English. By 2000 the percentage had increased to 41%.
Ref: British Social Attitudes Survey (UK).

89% of people in the UK now live in towns or cities.
Ref: New Statesman (UK).

Australians spend more than 3 hours every day watching television but only 12 minutes talking to their partner.
Ref: Sydney Morning Herald (AUS).

There are almost as many Chinese learning English in China as there are people who can speak English living in the US, UK and Canada combined.
Ref: Financial Times (UK).

92% of teenage girls in the UK are unhappy with their bodies and teenagers living in urban areas are the least happy according to a study by University College London. In London only 6% of teenage girls are happy with their body compared with 14% in Yorkshire.
Ref: Bliss (UK).

In China there are more households that own a DVD player than have running hot water.
Ref: The Guardian (UK).

To make a cotton T-Shirt requires 27,000 litres of water.
Ref: The Guardian (UK).

90% of all scientists and engineers with PhDs will live in Asia by 2010.
Ref: Purdue University (US).

In 2008 an average PC was 32,000 times more powerful and 12 times less expensive than an average PC in 1981.
Ref: A Brief History of the Future by Jacques Attali

Australia generates 2% of global Intellectual Property. In 10 years times this is expected to be 1%.
Ref: CSIRO (Aus).

There was a 400% rise in Chinese patent applications between 1995 and 2005.
Ref: World Intellectual Property Organization.

By the end of 2008, there were 1 billion PCs in use around the world. By 2013 this number is predicted to hit 2 billion.
Ref: New Scientist (UK).

10% of people in the US say that they would be happy to have an internet access device planted directly inside their brain.
Ref: Harper’s (US).

In 2005 Britain graduated 24,000 engineers. In China the figure was
300,000 while in India the number was 450,000.
Ref: Business Week (US).

There are currently 1.5 billion devices (approximately) connected to the Internet.
By 2012 there are expected to be 14 billion.
Ref: Forrester Research (US).

50% of products returned by customers are in full working order. It’s just that customers can’t figure out how to use them because they’re too complicated.
Ref: New Scientist (UK).

There were 77 serious accidents involving humans and robots in the UK in 2005.
Ref: New Scientist (UK).

Polluted water kills 22,000 people every day.

Ref: A Brief History of the Future by Jacques Attali.

It’s estimated that in the US 16 million barrels of oil are used every year to produce bottled water containers.

Ref: Harper’s (US).

Oil majors control less than 10 percent of world resources of gas and oil, against 70 percent in the 1970s.

Ref: AFP.

China has 21% of the world’s population but only 1.8% of the world’s oil supply.

Ref: Eurasia Group (US).

At current rates of over-fishing and pollution there will be no fish left to eat in our oceans by the year 2056.

Ref: Time (US).

A typical avatar in Second Life consumes the same amount of electricity each year as an average Brazilian in real life.

Ref: Rough Type (US).

90% of people living in California now live in an area where air pollution exceeds the legal state limit.

Ref: Harper’s (US).

The percentage of the earth’s surface affected by drought has more than doubled over the last thirty years.

Ref: Time (US).

630 million people live within 10km (6 miles) of the sea worldwide.

Ref: Economist (UK).

China consumes 40% of the world’s steel production, 30% of the world’s coal and 25% of the world’s aluminum and copper. The country also accounts for 40% of the increase in demand for oil since 2001.

Ref: The Guardian (UK).

In China there are fifty new chemical plants currently under construction. In the US there is one.

Ref: Businessweek (US).

5% of waste generated worldwide is electrical goods.

Ref: Sunday Times (UK).

China uses 55% of the world’s cement.

Ref: Williams Inference (US).

Around 80% of all news available on the Internet originates in newspapers.
Ref: New York Review of Books (US).

Of the 120,000 blogs created daily, 50% are about the same subject – the writer.
Ref: Esquire (US).

All South Korean police stations now have cyber crime units to deal with online violence and bullying.
Ref: BBC (UK).

Five of the top ten best-selling novels sold in Japan during 2007 started life as cell-phone stories (i.e. digital downloads to mobile phones).
Ref: South China Morning Post (China).

The use of libraries has doubled in the US over the past decade.
Ref: NPR.org (US).

The Web uses 5% of global electricity.
Ref: Kevin Kelly.

In a recent US study, only 3 out of 220 students were able to turn off their cell phones for 72 hours.
Ref: Fox News (US).

52% of Korean infants aged 3-5 regularly use the Internet, spending on average 4 hours every week online.
Ref: Korean Herald (Korea).

Two decades ago there were 225 TV programmes in the UK that were watched by more than 15m people. 2 years ago there were only 10.
Ref: Prospect (UK).

Almost 80% of 16-18 year olds in the US cannot name the 4 largest TV networks in the US (NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox).
Ref: CNN (US).

67% of people aged 16-25 claim that they would be ‘lost’ without a computer versus 46% that would be ‘lost’ without a television.
Ref: Red Herring (US).

In 2002 the average American spent more on lottery tickets than books.
Ref: Iconoculture (US).

36% of US high-school students believe that the US government should approve news stories prior to publication or broadcast.
Ref: Harpers (US).