Percentage of regular users who become dependent: 9% for cannabis, 32% for tobacco, 23% for heroin, 17% for cocaine and 15% for alcohol.

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In a year, the average Brit stands in a queue for more than 67 hours – or almost three days.

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About 20% of the world's electricity is used for lighting.

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Between 1996 and 2004, Americans created an average of 550,000 small businesses every month.

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Denmark has a top personal income tax rate of 63%.

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Bollywood produces 1,000 films a year that are watched by 3.6 billion people - comparatively Hollywood produces 700 films watched by 2.6 billion.

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In 2005, European venture capitalists invested €12.7 b in Europe whereas American venture capitalists invested €17.4 b in America.

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Over 1,120 litres of water are needed to produce 1 litre of coffee (including growing beans, packaging, etc.) - tea requires just 120 litres.

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You can own all 25,000 applications sold through Apple’s App Store for a total cost of $71,442.

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Visits to social networking and blogging sites amount for almost 10% of all Internet time.

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HP laptops are 90% recyclable and its printers, at least 70% recyclable.

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Over 1.2 billion mobile handsets were sold in 2008.

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Ford Europe notched a profit of $1.06 billion in 2008.

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Prime credit cards have a default rate of 5.5%.

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Coal provides almost 50% of America's and Germany's power, 70% of India's and 80% of China's power.

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America produces over 700kg of municipal waste per person each year.

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In Hong Kong, only 15 families control corporate assets worth 84% of GDP.

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Annual worldwide sales of instant coffee amount to $17 billion.

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Petrobras' proposed capital spending of $174 billion over the next 5 years is bigger than the entire economy of Chile.

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Google accounts for only 3% of internet search in South Korea. 'Naver' - a South Korean portal - accounts for 76% of the search traffic.

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Play-along gaming titles like 'Guitar Hero' and 'Rock Band' have raked in more than $2.3 billion over the past 3 years.

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Now, debt in America excluding that of financial institutions and the federal government is about 190% of GDP, the highest since the 1930s.

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Remittances sent back home from migrant workers might be as high as $305 billion in 2008, up from $281 billion in 2007.

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The unemployement rate for black Americans is 12.6% compared with just 6.9% for white Americans.

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In some countries, about one in ten jobs depends on the car industry.

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The world's data centres are estimated to be responsible for 2% of global carbon dioxide emissions - rounghly the same as air traffic.

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Russia has 200 cars for every 1000 people - Brazil about 130, China around 30 and India less than 10.

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