Source: 50 Facts That Should Change the World by Jessica Williams
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. The US and Britain have the highest teen pregnancy rates in the developed world
4. China 44 million missing women
5. Brazil has more Avon ladies than members of its armed services
6. Eighty-one per cent of the world’s executions in 2002 took place in just 3 countries: China, Iran and the USA
7. British supermarkets know more about their customers than the British government does
8. Every cow in the European Union is subsidised by $2.50 a day. That’s more than what 75% of Africans have to live on
9. In more than 70 countries, same-sex relationships are illegal. In 9 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 2003, 15 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 labourers in India
15. People in industrialised countries eat between six and seven kilograms of food additives every year
16. The golfer Tiger Woods is the world’s highest-paid sportsman. He earns $78 million a year- or $148 every second
17. Seven million American women and 1 million American men suffer from an eating disorder
18. Nearly half of British fifteen year olds have tried illegal drugs and nearly a quarter are regular cigarette smokers
19. There are 67, 000 people employed in the lobbying industry in Washington DC- 125 for each elected member of Congress
20. Cars kill two people every minute
21. Since 1977 there have been more than 90, 000 acts of violence and disruption at abortion clinics in North America
22. More people can identify the golden arches of McDonalds than the Christian cross
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 bullion- 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-one per cent of the world’s smokers live in developing countries
32. More than 70% of the world’s population have never heard a dial tone
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 dies each year from suicide than in all the world’s armed conflicts
37. Every week an average of 88 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. America spends $10 billion on pornography every year—the same amount it spends on foreign aid
43. In 2003 the US spent $396 billion on its military. This is 33 times the combined military spending of the seven “rogue states”
44. There are 27 million slaves in the world today
45. Americans discard 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour
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 flow 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