Online sales currently account for 6% of all retail sales in America, up from 5% in 2008. The comparative figure for Britain is 4%.

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The number of dollar billionaires in China actually increased in the past year from 101 to 130.

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To make it into the first Forbes 400 Richest list in 1982, one needed a net worth of $75 million. By 2006, one had to be a billionaire.

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52% of Silicon Valley start-ups were founded by immigrants, up from around a quarter ten years ago.

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In 2008, printing bills and minting coins cost US taxpayers $848 million, more than 2/3rd of it towards coins alone.

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Over the past 20 years, firms with dual class share structures - giving some shares more votes than others - have accounted for around 7% of IPOs.

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In 2008, 610 films were released in America, up from 471 in 1999.

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At 0.2% of GDP, Germany's 2009 'cash-for-clunkers' stimulus programme cost more, relative to the size of the economy, than that of any other country.

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In 2009, online games together with episodic game downloads are expected to account for just $9.4 billion of the $55 billion market for video games.

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Every month more than 60,000 OnStar subscribers in the US ask for the doors of their cars to be unlocked remotely, because they have locked themselves out.

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There is one CCTV camera for every eight people in London.

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The average Russian drinks 30 litres of hard liquor a year, six times the amount in the EU, while imbibing a modest 77 litres of beer, a little less than a typical European.

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Product warranties generate some $15 billion annually for American retailers.

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Fewer than 1% of LinkedIn's 50 million members worldwide actually pay for the service, compared with around 10% of Viadeo's and 18% of Xing's.

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The management consulting industry will earn revenues of $300 billion in 2009.

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Toyota spent the most on R&D of any company in the world in 2008 - increasing its annual R&D spending by 7.6% to €7.6 billion ($10.6 billion) to knock Microsoft off the top spot.

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Globally, $736 billion were paid out as dividends by quoted firms in 2007.

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Emerging markets account for more than a third of the world's rich but only about 15% of luxury car sales.

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Sales of netbooks - small, low-cost notebooks - are 8 times higher in Europe than in the US.

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In America, women earn 57% of bachelor's degrees, 59% of master's degrees and half the doctorates.

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London's Underground takes in only £1.5 billion a year from fares.

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In India, nearly half the traffic runs on just 2% of the country's roads.

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Asia is home to nearly 80% of the world's 315 million motorcycles.

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In Britain, over 80% of coffee sold is instant coffee, compared with just 10% in America.

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In 2008, Exxon Mobil turned up an annual profit of $45.2 billion - the biggest-ever for an American company.

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Around 200 million people now live outside their homelands, comprising some 3% of the global population.

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The relationship between executive pay and company size obeys a power law; companies twice the size tend to pay their CEOs roughly 25% more.

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Car ownership in most of western Europe is over 500 per 1000 people. In America, it is 800 per 1000 people.

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South Korean firms spend more on R&D as a percentage of sales (6.5%) than European and Japanese firms (around 5%); American firms spend about 8%.

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There’s a 5.6% clickrate on porn spam.

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Some 85% of all the high-growth businesses created in America in the past 20 years were launched by college graduates.

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