1. The average Japanese woman can expect to live to be 84. The average Botswanan will reach just 39 -- 2. A third of the world's obese people live in the developing world -- 3. If you stand at the Junction of Oxford Street and Regent Street in central London, there are 161 branches of Starbucks within a five-mile radius -- 4. China has 44 million missing women -- 5. Brazil has more Avon ladies than members of its armed services -- 6. Ninety-four percent of the world's executions in 2005 took place in just four countries: China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the USA -- 7. Supermarkets know more about their customers than the government does -- 8. Every cow in the European Union is subsidised by $2.50 a day. That's more than what 75 percent of Africans have to live on -- 9. In more than 70 countries, same-sex relationships are illegal. In nine countries, the penalty is death -- 10. One in five of the world's people lives on less than $1 a day -- 11. More than 12,000 women are killed each year in Russia as a result of domestic violence -- 12. In 2006, 16 million Americans had some form of plastic surgery -- 13. Landmines kill or maim at least one person every hour -- 14. There are 44 million child laborers in India -- 15. People in industrialized countries eat between fourteen and fifteen pounds of food additives every year -- 16. David Beckham's deal with the LA Galaxy football team will earn him $100 every minute -- 17. Seven million American women and 1 million American men suffer from an eating disorder -- 18. Twenty-eight percent of American teenagers have tried illegal drugs and more than a quarter are regular cigarette smokers -- 19. One million people become new mobile phone subscribers every day. Some 85 percent of them live in emerging markets -- 20. Cars kill two people every minute -- 21. Since 1977, there have been more than 120,000 acts of violence and disruption at abortion clinics in North America -- 22. Global warming already kills 150,000 people every year -- 23. In Kenya, bribery payments make up a third of the average household budget -- 24. The world's trade in illegal drugs is estimated to be worth around $400 billion -- about the same as the world's legal pharmaceutical industry -- 25. A third of Americans believe aliens have landed on Earth -- 26. More than 150 countries use torture -- 27. Every day, one in five of the world's population -- some 800 million people -- go hungry -- 28. Black men born in the US today stand a one in three chance of going to jail -- 29. A third of the world's population is at war -- 30. The world's oil reserves could be exhausted by 2040 -- 31. Eighty-two percent of the world's smokers live in developing countries -- 32. Britons buy 3 billion items of clothing every year -- an average of 50 pieces each. Most of it ends up being thrown away -- 33. A quarter of the world's armed conflicts of recent years have involved a struggle for natural resources -- 34. Some 30 million people in Africa are HIV-positive -- 35. Ten languages die out every year -- 36. More people die each year from suicide than in all the world's armed conflicts -- 37. Every week, an average of 54 children are expelled from American schools for bringing a gun to class -- 38. There are at least 300,000 prisoners of conscience in the world -- 39. Two million girls and women are subjected to female genital mutilation each year -- 40. There are 300,000 child soldiers fighting in conflicts around the world -- 41. Nearly 26 million people voted in the 2001 British General Election. More than 32 million votes were cast in the first season of Pop Idol -- 42. One in six English teenagers believe that reality television will make them famous -- 43. In 2005, the US spent $554 billion on its military. This is 29 times the combined military spending of the six "rogue states" -- 44. There are 27 million slaves in the world today -- 45. Americans discard 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour. That's enough bottles to reach a ll the way to the moon every three weeks -- 46. The average urban Briton is caught on camera up to 300 times a day -- 47. Some 120,000 women and girls are trafficked into Western Europe every year -- 48. A kiwi fruit flown from New Zealand to Britain emits five times its own weight in greenhouse gases -- 49. The US owes the United Nations more than $1 billion in unpaid dues -- 50. Children living in poverty are three times more likely to suffer a mental illness than children from wealthy families.
|
