A 1947 study found that during the Second World War, only about 15 to 25 percent of the American infantry ever fired their rifles in combat. (source)

100 people a year choke to death on ball-point pens.

In 1915, the average American worker earned $687 yearly; however, there were 44 families that year with an income of $1,000,000 or greater, and 1,598 families with an income between $100,000 and $1,000,000. (source)

It has been noted that 6% of the males of a given age commit around 50% of all serious crimes committed by males of that age. This statistic is fairly consistent across many ages and many different locations. (source)

Out of the 620,000 or so who died during the American Civil War, only around 205,000 were killed in battle, while around 415,000 or so died of disease.

According to a survey of Americans, on an average day 14% of men (and 8% of women) fall asleep or nod off somewhere other than their bed. As well, out of the survey's respondents, 12% reported that they had fallen asleep at work at least once in the past, 10% at school, and 4% in the bathroom. (source)

Half of the people killed by bombs are those trying to make or set the bombs.

According to statistics gathered by Robert Matthews of Aston University, if a piece of toast falls on the floor, it lands butter side down 62% of the time. He had 1,000 children drop a total of 9,821 slices, of which 6,101 landed butter side down. (source)

If you are in a room with 22 or more other people, there is more than a 50% chance that two people in the room have the same birthday.

In 1938, a United States presidential commission concluded that the nation's population would never reach 140 million. The population exceeded that figure only eight years later. (source)

Worldwide, around 265 people are born every minute and 115 people die, for a net increase in population of 150 people every minute. (source)

Around 1,900,000,000 Christmas cards are given in the United States of America yearly, making it the largest card-sending occasion in the country. The second-largest is Valentine's Day, with approximately 192 million cards being given. (source)

Only 1% of the population has a "genius" IQ, one of 140 or higher. (source)

The current population of Earth is over 7,000,000,000. Around 1900 there were only 1,600,000,000 people, meaning that Earth's population has more than quadrupled in slightly over 100 years' time. (source)

According to the South Dakota department of health, the average man watches 29 hours of television per week, and the average woman 34 hours per week. (source)

Enough food is grown in the world to provide every human with 2,700 calories per day, an amount that is more than adequate. Yet, over 800,000,000 people suffer from chronic malnutrition. There are many reasons for this, including corruption, war, political disputes, transportation and storage facilities inadequate to prevent spoilage and loss, and other reasons.

The average American spends 18% of his or her income on transportation, and only 13% on food.

In 1997, U.S. News & World Report surveyed its readers as to whether they believed various well-known figures to be "very likely" or "somewhat likely" to get into heaven. More people (87%) picked themselves as being likely to get into heaven than anyone else, ahead of people such as Mother Teresa (second place, 79%) or Oprah Winfrey (third place, 66%). (source)

If we were to house the roughly eight billion people on Earth at a density of 16 people per acre (roughly equivalent to a family of four living on a quarter-acre, or 40 people per hectare), the entire population of Earth would fit into the country of Mexico, which takes up 1.3% of the land area of the Earth.

The South American country of Suriname comprises around 23% Catholics, 25% Protestants, 20% Muslims, and 27% Hindus. Additionally, many of the native people practise traditional animism, a population of former black slaves whose ancestors escaped into the rainforest practise an African syncretic faith, and a Chinese community practises Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. (source)

According to a study conducted at the University of Utah, 98 tons of prehistoric plant matter was required to produce a gallon of gasoline. At this rate, the amount of fossil fuels burned in one year is equivalent to 400 times the amount of plant matter that grows on the Earth each year.

The chances of winning a lottery in which six numbers are drawn from 49 is 1 in 13,983,816. In a lottery in which seven numbers are drawn from 49, the odds of winning are 1 in 85,900,584. (source)

In 1985, NASA estimated the probability of a space shuttle accident to be 1 in 100,000. However, on the 25^th shuttle launch on January 28, 1986, Challenger exploded after take-off, killing all seven astronauts aboard; again, on February 1, 2003, the 113^rd mission, Columbia exploded on re-entry, again with the loss of all seven astronauts. Other groups had earlier estimated the probability of failure as being closer to 1 in 100, a probability that in retrospect seems more reasonable.

There are 400 ways of playing the first move on each side in a game of chess, 197,281 ways of playing the first two moves on each side, 84,999,425,906 ways of playing the first four moves on each side, and an estimated 169,518,829,100,544,000,000,000,000,000 ways of playing the first ten moves on each side. (source)

In the 1950s, astrologers Michel and Françoise Gauquelin studied planetary alignments and found that a great many athletes were influenced by the planet Mars, many soldiers, politicians and actors were influenced by the planet Jupiter, many writers were influenced by the Moon, and many doctors were born at specific times of the day or night when Mars or Saturn was at its highest point or had just risen. In 1978, CSICOP, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, conducted a study to debunk the Gauquelins' findings. However, their results confirmed the Gauquelins' conclusions, which was not what a sceptical group like CSICOP was looking for. CSICOP obfuscated their findings by manipulating the statistics so that the results were more in line with their desires. (source)

In 1915, when 100 million people lived in the United States of America, there were 6.5 million farms. In 2006, when 300 million people lived in the United States of America, there were only 2.1 million farms. (source)