The proportion of households in Britain in which children are present is less than 23 per cent. [Anthony Smith, Software for the Self, p112]. Britain's population density is 620 people per square mile compared with 29 per square mile in the US. [International Herald Tribune, 29th April 1996]. Almost four out of ten of those in the bottom fifth of Britain's income range in 1991 had moved up to a higher income by 1992. ["Do the Poor Stay Poor?" Research Centre on Micro-Social Change at Essex University, 1996]
There are more than 200m peasants "surplus to requirements" in the Chinese countryside. [World Bank estimate cited in East Asian Myths, Prospect June, p72]. Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister of Malaysia, has just thrown the largest ever sit-down dinner party. He was host to 12,000 guests to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his ruling party, the United Malay National Organisation. [BBC World Service]
Nearly three quarters of Britons in the bottom fifth on the earnings scale have access to a telephone, compared with 85 per cent in the US and 99 per cent in Sweden; and 98 per cent have a refrigerator compared with 73 per cent in Germany. [Research Centre on Micro-Social Change, 1996].
The southwest has the highest number of pubs per head in Britain at 1.33 per 1,000. Wales is next with 1.32 per 1,000. London is worst off: 0.51 per 1,000. [Datamonitor, May 1996]
