- An estimated 7,000 Americans a year die as a result of doctors' bad handwriting. [Harper's, April 2007]
- Paul Wolfowitz speaks French, German, Arabic, Hebrew and Indonesian. [New Yorker, 9th April 2007]
- Of the 28 government departments created between 1960 and 1979, 13 had been wound up by 1981. [Tony Wright, Comment is Free, 29th March 2007]
- In Britain, the suicide rate among cricketers is more than twice as high as the national average. [The Spectator, 31st March 2007]
- Between 1989 and 2005, the number of incidences of mass killing of civilians around the world decreased by 90 per cent. [New Republic, 22nd March 2007]
- In Italy, until recently, it was not possible to get a haircut on Monday. [Financial Times, 28th March 2007]
- Jack Kerouac typed at 100 words a minute. [New Yorker, 9th April 2007]
- Only a quarter of state school pupils with an A and two Bs at A-level get to a top university, against 45 per cent of independent school pupils with the same qualifications. [The Guardian, 27th March 2007]
- Only 7 per cent of imports to Britain carry customs duties. In 2005, Britain raised £2.3bn in duties. £1.7bn of this was passed on to Brussels, leaving £0.6bn—less than the cost of collection. [The Business, 4th April 2007]
- Napoleon was actually five foot six and a half; taller than the average early 19th-century Frenchman. [The Observer, 25th March 2007]
- The World Bank's lending to Africa from July 2006 to April 2007 was $1bn lower than the same period a year earlier. [New Yorker, 9th April 2007]
- In 2006, the average Russian drank 26 pints of alcohol—three times as much as in 1990, and more than half as much again as in 2005. Alcohol was responsible for 28,386 deaths—12 per cent of the Russian total—but the number in 2005 was 40,877. [physorg.com]
- In January 2007, the title "world's oldest person" changed hands three times. [Harper's, April 2007]
- The happiness boost that men gain from a firstborn son is 75 per cent larger than from a firstborn daughter. Second and third children don't add to the happiness of either parent. [Psychology Today, 12th April 2007]
- Those who eat with one other person consume about 35 per cent more than when they are alone; members of a group of four eat about 75 per cent more; those in groups of seven or more eat 96 per cent more. [New Republic, 22nd March 2007]
- In Britain, corporate profitability—the rate of return on capital—rose to 15 per cent in 2006, the highest level since records began in 1965. But the share of national income received by workers in advanced economies is currently at its lowest level in 25 years. [Office for National Statistics/IMF]
