Interesting Facts

Agriculture

• People might eat oats when they're hungry, but people from Hungary don't eat oats.
• What is in a name? More than 90% of people in Bhutan, Burundi and Burkina Faso are involved in agriculture.
• Iceland has far more tractors per 1000 hectares of cropland than any other nation - more than twice that of the next highest country, Slovenia.
• Costa Rica leads the world in per capita banana, melon and pineapple exports to the USA. Unsuprisingly, they’re also first in pesticide use.
• The United States, India and China account for a third of all arable and permanent cropland in the world.
• China is the textile mill of the world: it leads in cotton production, but also in cotton imports.
• Australia accounts for more organic cropland than the next 36 countries combined.
• Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe, and the world's largest producer of barley and total coarse grain per gdp.

Background

• Peru’s national bird is the Andean cock of the rock (Rupicola peruviana).
• Every year, approximatley one third of Bangledesh finds itself underwater from monsoons.
• The expatriate population from Cape Verde is larger than its domestic one.
• Armenia was the first nation to formally adopt Christianity, and today has one of the few Christian cultures to still sacrifice animals on Sunday.

Crime

• Per capita, South Africa has the most assaults, rapes, and murders with firearms.
• Two-thirds of the world's executions occur in China.
• Two-thirds of the world's kidnappings occur in Colombia.
• Venezuela is one of the happiest and most murderous places in the world.
• Russia has almost twice as many judges and magistrates as the United States. Meanwhile, the United States has 8 times as much crime.
• In the Maldives, there are more than 2 jails for every 1000 people.
• One in every three Australians is a victim of crime.
• Saudi diplomats have 367 unpaid parking fines in Britain.
• In pure number terms, more crimes are committed in America than in any other nation. The same goes for burglaries, car thefts, rapes and assaults.
• The United States puts 0.7 % of its population in Prison - a vastly higher percentage than any other nation.
• India’s criminal courts acquitted over a million defendants in 1999, more than the next 48 surveyed countries combined.
• Women make up more than 10% of the prison population in only six countries: Thailand, , Qatar, Paraguay, Costa Rica, and Singapore.
• People trust Swedes! Swedish companies are the world’s least-likely to be perceived as paying bribes.
• 84% of people in Finland feel that they are at a low risk of experiencing a burglary - but just look at how many burglaries they have!
• The Caribbean islands of Barbados, Saint Lucia and Grenada are all in the top 5 for the most crowded prisons in the world.
• 82% of people in Finland show confidence in police institutions, though only 41% of the Fins surveyed felt they could report a crime to the police.

Currency

• ‘Dollar’ is the most common currency name, followed by ‘franc,’ ‘pound,’ ‘dinar,’ ‘peso,’ and ‘rupee.’
• Iran, Cuba, Iraq and Syria all have something in common: their currencies are fixed to the US Dollar.

Democracy

• You can be imprisoned for not voting in Fiji, Chile and Egypt - at least in theory.
• In the last Argentinian elections, 21% of the votes were declared invalid.
• In Belgium, 55% of government ministers are female. The country’s first female parliamentarian was appointed in 1921.
• In 1919, Kenya became the first African colony to give women the right to vote.
• The United States allowed women to stand for election in 1788. 132 years later, women were finally allowed to vote in elections.

Economy

• Israel has a GDP per capita 21 times that of the West Bank and 33 times that of the Gaza Strip.
• The majority of people in most African countries live in poverty.
• 72% of people in Mali earn less than $1 per day.
• 41% world's poor people live in India.
• The ten most generous countries are all in Europe.
• Americans are 15% more innovative than the Japanese. But in percentage terms, the Japanese grant 3.5 times more patents.
• United we stand? The United Kingdom and United States are both in the top ten for Gross Domestic Product - and for child poverty.
• Three of the top ten countries for GDP per capita are island nations: Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and Iceland.
• France is the top destination in the world for tourists, accounting for 11 percent of all tourist arrivals worldwide.
• The top ten countries for tourist destinations account for 49.6 percent of all tourist arrivals worldwide.
• The number of tourists in San Marino is almost 19 times the resident population.
• Iran imports more US goods than Latvia and Estonia combined.
• Cuba's per capita imports from the United States are greater than Russia's.
• Greenland has a higher GDP per capita than South Korea.
• In 1900, 22 countries had a higher GDP per capita than Mexico. Current GDP per capita figures show that 79 countries are higher.

Education

• There are 22 countries where more than half the population is illiterate. Fifteen of them are in Africa.
• The women of Iceland earn two-thirds of their nation's university degrees.
• More than half of Indonesia's primary school teachers are under 30 years of age .
• Thinking of becoming a teacher? Head to Switzerland. Teaching salaries there start at $US 33,000.
• Kids in Mali spend only 2 years in school. More than half of them start working between the ages of 10 and 14.
• Teachers make up 7.8 percent of Iceland’s labor force - and they only have to teach 38 weeks per year.
• Central European men don’t teach. In Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, over 75 percent of lower secondary teachers are female.

Energy

• Japan has 53 working nuclear reactors and is planning to build another 12.
• The top 10 countries for electricity generation using a nuclear energy source are all in Europe.
• The price of gasoline in Turkmenistan is only $US 0.03 per liter. This is cheaper than in any of the OPEC (Oil Producing) countries.
• Ukraine is number one in the world for per capita construction of nuclear reactors and nuclear waste generated.
• Russia produces more natural gas than the next six countries combined, and has over a quarter of the world's proven gas reserves.

Environment

• Japan's water has a very high dissolved oxygen concentration - but not enough to prevent drowning in the bath.
• Indonesia contains the most known mammal species - and the most mammal species under threat.
• The total area of Australia’s coral reefs is greater than the total area of some 130 individual countries.

Food

• The average person in the United Kingdom drinks as much tea as 23 Italians.
• Norwegians drink 10.7 kilograms of coffee per person each year, and also lead the globe in anxiety disorders. Time to switch to herbal tea?
• Norwegians consume more than 15 times as much coffee per person as the Irish.
• The average person in the United Kingdom drinks as much tea as 23 Italians.
• The five countries with the highest coffee consumption are also the five countries whose citizens trust one another the most. Coincidence? Probably.
• Canadians drink more fruit juice than the citizens of any other nation - more than one litre for each person, every week.
• Bacon on the side: the average rate of pork consumption among the Danes is over twice as high as that of Americans.
• Americans consume 10 times as many soft drinks as the Japanese
• In 1960, alcohol consumption in Italy was 16.6 litres consumed per person. In 2003? 8 litres were consumed per person.
• Venezuela has three times as many Subway resturants as France.

Geography

• Guinea has the wettest capital on Earth, with 3.7 metres of rain a year.
• Clipperton Island wins our prize for the most unusual looking country.
• Only two countries in the world are doubly landlocked: Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan.
• Sick of crowds? Move to Greenland! Greenlanders have 38 square kilometres of land per person.
• Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country.
• Think Antarctica is inhospitable? Think again - its land area is only ninety-eight percent ice. Reassuringly, the other 2% is "barren rock".
• The Mall in Washington, D.C. is 1.4 times larger than Vatican City.
• The four largest nations - Russia, China, USA and Canada - account for nearly a third of all land area.
• Brazil takes up 47.8% of South America.
• Canada lays claim to more water than any other nation.
• Almost the entire Cook Islands are covered by forest.
• Australia has more than 28 times the land area of New Zealand, but its coastline is not even twice as long.
• Although Russia is 127 times the size of Bangladesh, its population is slightly less.

Government

• Got a parking ticket in Finland? Better just pay up - it is the least corrupt nation in the world.
• Members of the armed forces and the police cannot vote in the Dominican Republic.
• Nauru, Tokelau and Western Sahara are the only three countries without official capital cities.
• Nauru is the world's smallest independent republic, and currently processes asylum seekers for Australia.

Health

• In Botswana, more than one in three adults aged 15-49 are infected with HIV/AIDS.
• The average woman in New Zealand doesn't give birth until she is nearly 30 years old.
• Mexican women spend 15.3% of their life in ill health.
• 22% of American women aged 20 gave birth while in their teens. In Switzerland and Japan, only 2% did so.
• In Ethiopia, nine out of ten births occur without skilled health staff present.
• The United States tops the world in plastic surgery procedures. Next comes Mexico.
• Only 4% of married women in Chad are using contraceptives.
• More than half of all doctors in Finland are female.
• One in three Italian babies is born by caesarean section.

Identification

• Libya is the only country with a single-coloured flag.
• NationMaster.com is now 40 times the size of the CIA World Factbook!
• Libya’s full name is the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
• Nepal’s flag is the only one in the world that isn't square or rectangular.
• Of the 8 countries which include the word "democratic" in their long form name, 3 are dictatorships: Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
• The oldest official nation-state flag in the world is the northern cross of Denmark.

Immigration

• The top five countries of origin for refugees are all in Africa.
• Canada is immigrant-friendly. It confers the most new citizenships per capita and per $ GDP, and the second-most new citizenships overall.
• Apparently, the Federated States of Micronesia is the place to leave - and Afghanistan is the place to go.
• Want to go to the United States? Try going to Albania first. Albania has more U.S visa lottery winners per capita than anywhere else in the world.

Industry

• In 2002, every 1000 Swedes made a bus.
• Japan leads the world in car production, producing almost 50% more cars than either Germany and the United States.
• One motor vehicle is produced for every 10 people in Belgium, the highest rate in the world.

Internet

• Around 80% of all livejournal users are from the United States of America.
• Iceland has the most internet users per capita but there are more hosts per capita in the United States

Labor

• Danish workers strike 150 times more than their German neighbours.
• More than a third of the time, Icelanders don't show up for work. Perhaps that's why they're the world's happiest nation.
• In Switzerland, the average person has to work for 102 minutes to buy a kilogram of beef - one of the longest times in the developed world. On the other hand, they only have work 14 hours to buy a refrigerator.
• 61.5% of Swedes work more than 40 hours per week, but just across the border in Norway only 15.8% of people work this long.
• If you are looking for work, just go to the Falkland Islands! They have full employment and a labor shortage.
• Mozambique has the most active female workforce, and the largest over the age of 65.
• Over 35% of young people in Poland are unemployed.
• The average Irish worker must work twice as long as the average Brit to buy a car.
• Nauru, whose economy is derived almost entirely from phosphate in bird droppings, has the highest rate of unemployment in the world.

Language

• Houses in English-speaking countries have the most rooms.
• Looking for the linguistic capital of the world? Head to Papua New Guinea, with 715 indigenous languages.

Lifestyle

• 62% of Bulgarians describe themselves as either 'not very' or 'not at all' happy.
• The fourteen unhappiest countries are all in Eastern Europe.
• 22% of New Zealanders have used cannabis.
• Australians are the most likely to join charities, educational organizations, environmental groups, sports groups and unions. But only 3% join political parties.
• Australians lead the world in hours worked and membership in many voluntary organizations. How do they find the energy?
• In all the countries surveyed, women do more housework than men.
• Norwegians rank number one in willingness to fight for their country and the most trusting people.
• Very few English speakers are not proud of their country.

Media

• Andorra has no unemployment, which is just as well because they have no broadcast TV channels either. What would everyone watch?
• China has the most workers, so it's a good thing they've also got the most TV's.
• Indians go out to the movies 3 billion times a year - much more than any other nation.
• The USA has more personal computers than the next 7 countries combined.
• Americans and Icelanders go to the cinema 5 times a year, on average. The average Japanese person goes only once.
• The United States has the most money, airports, radios and Internet Service Providers.
• Malaysia has the lowest rate of cinema attendance in the world.
• A three-minute local phone call in Ecuador costs 60 U.S. cents, 60 times as much as in Ukraine, Macedonia, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, or Uzbekistan.
• Taiwan and Luxembourg are the only countries in the world where the mobile phones outnumber the people!
• Leisure time: Armenia is a world leader in library members and cinemas per capita.

Military

• North Korea spends most of its GDP on its military.
• The United States spends more money on its military than the next 12 nations combined.
• In the 1990's, nearly half of all arms exported to developing countries came from the United States of America.
• If you're looking to invade someone by sea, try Canada, which has only 9000 Navy personnel guarding the longest national coastline in the world.
• Bolivia has 4,500 Navy personnel - which seems like quite a lot for a landlocked country.
• Israel's per capita military expenditure is the highest in the world, at over $1,400 per person. Syria, still officially at war with Israel, spends $46.51 per person on its military.
• Greece spends more money on conventional military imports than any country in the world except China and India.

Mortality

• Moldova has one of the smallest artillery forces in Europe, and the highest rate in the world of death by powered lawnmower. Coincidence? Surely not.
• On average, more than 70 persons die of varicose veins per year per country.
• If someone you know died from falling out of a tree, you’re probably Brazilian.
• You are more likely to be reported as having been killed by lightning in Cuba than in any other country.

People

• Andorrans live the longest, four years longer than in neighbouring France and Spain.
• China's labor force stands at 706 million people, almost three times that of Europe and twice that of North and South America combined
• Luxembourgers are the world's richest people - and also the most generous.
• Senior gentlemen might consider a trip to Russia, where there are two women over 65 for every man.
• Single guys should check out The Virgin Islands, where the women outnumber the men.
• Many Americans live alone - the United States leads the world in one person households.
• Looking for geniuses? Head straight to Iceland. There are more than 3 Nobel Prize Winners for every million Icelanders.
• Sri Lanka has lowest divorce rate in the world - and the highest rate of female suicide.
• Nearly a quarter of people in Monaco are over 65.
• The United States has the world's highest marriage rate - as well as the world's highest divorce rate.
• If you're Dutch or Swedish, you're among the world's most likely to end up living in a retirement home. If you're Japanese, you'll probably end up living with your children.
• Of all the nations of the world, China has the most people. But there are 71 nations that are more crowded.
• Most households in Europe and North America contain fewer than three people.
• Like living in cities? Guadeloupe, Nauru, Monaco, Singapore, Gibraltar and Bermuda are only nations that are 100% urbanized.
• There are 11 countries where the average woman has more than six children. Ten of them are in Africa.
• More than half the people in Uganda are under 14 years old.

Religion

• At least 9 out 10 Nigerians attend church regularly. Only 4 out of 10 Americans claim to do so.
• The Jewish population in Iran is larger than Poland and Spain's combined.
• India has more Catholic Priests than Ireland, Austria and Portugal combined.
• Brazil is the largest Catholic country in the world.
• Bhutan, known as 'Land of the Thunder Dragon', is the only official Buddhist Kingdom in the world.

Sports

• Russia won the first World Air Games, held in Turkey in 1997. Events included hang-gliding, sky-surfing, and ballooning.
• No winter olympic medals have ever been won by African or South American countries.
• Russia has twice as many chess Grandmasters as its nearest competitor, Germany.

Taxation

• Don't start a company in Australia. More than 20% of the tax collected in Australia is corporate income tax.
• In Denmark, more than 50% of the tax collected is personal income tax. In the Netherlands, personal income tax makes up less than 15%.
• People in Germany, Belgium, Hungary and Sweden have to pay almost half their salaries in tax.
• Tax makes up half of the of Gross Domestic Product in Denmark and Sweden. In Japan and the United States, it makes up less than 30%.

Transportation

• Brazil is the heliport capital of the world.
• American planes take-off a staggering 8.5 million times per year - almost half the number of take-offs worldwide.
• More than a third of the world's airports are in the United States of America.
• In Germany and Italy, every second person owns a car.
• The Pitcairn Islands have the world’s shortest highway system, with only 6.4 kilometers of road. They also have the fourth-fewest main phone lines.
• About one-quarter of all nations drive on the left-hand-side of the road. Most of them are former British colonies.
• Train spotters should go to Australia, which has more railway per capita than anywhere else on the globe.
• Thimpu Bhutan is the only world capital without traffic lights.

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