In fact

 
October 19, 1997

Among Europeans, Scots watch more club football matches per capita than any other country except Albania. [Prospect, October 1997, page 74]

Harvard University's endowment fund is valued at $8,811,785,000-a sum larger than the GDP of Ghana, Iceland, Kenya, Lithuania, Panama, Paraguay or Qatar.

[The Chronicle of Higher Education, 29th August 1997]

In the past six months, 23 per cent of all newspaper coverage has been devoted to sport, compared to 15 per cent on the economy and 10 per cent on politics. [Press Gazette, 18th July 1997]

Of the 63,000 people who live in Bermuda, 100 per cent reside in urban areas. [The Economist World in Figures 1998]

Chinese driving students must log more than 80 hours of class and road time. Classes can last 12 hours, with up to six students sharing a car. [Far Eastern Economic Review, 11th September 1997]

The world's least used language is Bikya, spoken by an 87-year-old woman living near the Cameroon/Nigeria border. [The Guardian, 22nd July 1997]

In India this year, 127m people were vaccinated against polio in a single day. [World Health Organisation, 1997]

Nicaragua has the world's highest debt burden-590 per cent of GDP- and the largest current account deficit, at 43 per cent of GDP. [The Economist World in Figures 1998]