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 many, many 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 exports of bananas, cassava, melons, and pineapples to the United States. Unsuprisingly, they’re also first in pesticide use.

Crime

• You're 66 times more likely to be prosecuted in the USA than in France
• If you're in Montserrat, watch your back! Nearly 1% of the population are police officers.
• Per capita, South Africa has the most assaults, rapes, and murders with firearms.
• Two-thirds of the world's executions occur in China.
• America puts many more of its citizens in prison than any other nation.
• 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!

Currency

• ‘Dollar’ is the most common currency name, followed by ‘franc,’ ‘pound,’ ‘dinar,’ ‘peso,’ and ‘rupee.’

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.

Economy

• Most people live in poverty in most African countries.
• The top nations for per capita imports and exports tend to be very small.
• The eight most developed countries all speak Germanic languages.
• 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 tourist destinations France, Spain, USA, Italy, China, UK, Austria, Mexico, Germany and Canada account for 49.6 percent of all tourist arrivals worldwide.
• The number of tourists in San Marino is almost 19 times the resident population.

Education

• Want your kids to stay in school? Send them to Norway.
• English speaking kids are the world's biggest novel readers - but the least enthusiastic comic readers.
• Japanese and South Korean kids are the best in the world at science and maths.
• Three quarters of Japanese kids read comics.
• American adults have spent more time than anyone in 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 30years 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, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, over 75 percent of lower secondary teachers are female.

Energy

• Qataris have lots and lots of gas.
• 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.

Environment

• Almost half of Ecuador is subject to environmental protection.
• 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 any of 130 individual countries, including Slovakia, the Dominican Republic, Kuwait, Singapore, and Rwanda.
• There are more known reptile species in Australia than in all other listed countries combined.

Food

• The United States has the world's highest number of McDonald’s restaurants per capita. Americans also die of obesity more often than any other nation, with more deaths than Mexico, Germany, Spain, Austria and Canada combined.
• Norwegians drink 10.7 kilograms of coffee per person each year. They also lead the globe in anxiety disorders. Maybe it’s time to switch to herbal tea.
• Americans consume the sixth-most spirits, the eighth-most beer and the 18th-most wine. They’re also likely to view heavy drinkers as undesirable neighbors.
• 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.

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.
• If you thought Antarctica was inhospitable, think again - its land area is only ninety-eight percent ice. Reassuringly, the other 2% is categorised as "barren rock".
• The Mall in Washington, D.C. is 1.4 times larger than Vatican City.
• The four largest nations are Russia, China, USA, and Canada.
• 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.
• Contrary to the popular rhyme, the rain falls mainly on Guinea.
• Australia has more than 28 times the land area of New Zealand, but its coastline is not even twice as long.

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.

Health

• Most Zambians don't live to see their 40th birthday.
• On the probability of not reaching 40 graph, the top 34 countries are all African.
• 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.
• Sick people is Switzerland stay in hospital for longer than the people of any other nation - almost 10 days, on average. Switzerland also has the world's highest number of hospital beds per capita.
• 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!
• Nepal’s flag isn’t square or rectangular. It’s a double triangle.
• Peru’s national bird is the Andean cock of the rock (Rupicola peruviana).
• Libya’s full name is the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
• Of the eight countries which include the word "democratic" in their conventional long form name, three are dictatorships: North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), Laos (Lao People's Democratic Republic) and the Democratic republic of the Congo.

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 of its next closest competitors, Germany and the United States

• Around 80% of all livejournal users are from the United States of America.

Labor

• Guatamalan women work 11.5 hours a day, while South African men work only 4.5.
• Kenyan women work 35% longer than their menfolk.
• Ethiopians are by far the most agricultural people on earth (both men and women)
• Looking for Czech and Slovak men? Half are in factories.
• Women are flooding into the workforce in many Muslim countries.
• American women have the most powerful jobs.
• Southern European women hugely outnumber their menfolk amongst the unemployed.
• 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 for it.
• If you are looking for work, just go to the Falkland Islands! They have full employment and a labor shortage.
• 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.

Language

• Houses in English-speaking countries have the most rooms.

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, professional organizations, sports groups and unions. But only three percent join political parties.
• Australians lead the world in hours worked and membership in many voluntary organizations. How do they find the energy?
• The five countries with the highest coffee consumption are also the five countries whose citizens trust one another the most. Coincidence? Probably.
• In all the countries surveyed, women do more housework than men.
• Canadians drink more fruit juice than the citizens of any other nation - more than one litre each, every week.

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!

Military

• Israel enjoys a GDP per capita 21 times that of the Palestinian West Bank and 33 times that of the Gaza Strip. Its military spending per capita tops the world.
• North Korea spends the 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! Canada 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.

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.
• If you like kids, then Uganda might be the place for you. Half the population is under 15!
• 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.
• South America is unusual in that it is both highly urbanized and poor.
• Many Americans live alone - the United States leads the world in one person households.
• Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country.
• 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.
• Australians have a huge 380,000 sq m of land per person - and yet 91% live in urban areas.
• 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% urbanised.
• There are 11 countries where the average woman has more than six children. Ten of them are in Africa.

Religion

• Mexico has the most Jehovah's Witnesses per capita in the OECD.
• At least 9 out 10 Nigerians attend church regularly. Only 4 out of 10 Americans claim to do so.

Sports

• Finns are perhaps the world's greatest athletes, ranking first in medals per capita for Summer Olympics, and third for Winter Olympics.
• Russia won the first World Air Games, held in Turkey in 1997. Events included hang-gliding, sky-surfing, and ballooning.

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.
• In Australia, there's plenty of open road. Which is just as well, because you wouldn't want to park your car.
• 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 - Australians have more railway per capita than anyone else on the globe.

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