• Rudd and Abbott commit to Australian Christian Lobby webcast in lead-up to federal election... | more... |
• Four in five people believe internet access is a fundamental right... | more... |
• Unfriendly nuclear powers and terrorism still top Australians' 'greatest threats' list... | more... |
• Australians among highest per capita users of cannabis... | more... |
• More than 600,000 affected in West African floods... | more... |
• Marriages hit 20 year high... | more... |
• Three quarters of Australians "negatively affected" by someone else's drinking... | more... |
• Australian men's hate of housework makes them less attractive, says study... | more... |
• Women in Japan and men in San Marino top life expectancy list... | more... |
• Twelve per cent of bird species threatened with extinction... | more...
• Millions of children suffering malnutrition in Bangladesh... | more... |
• Fifteen per cent of Americans say they have "no religion"... | more... |
• 2,500 languages in danger of disappearing... | more... |
• Australia ranks poorly when it comes to childcare services, says UNICEF report... | more... |
• Youth murder rates highest in Latin America... | more... |
• "Striking inequalities" remain in world health care, according to WHO's World Health Report... | more... |
• $US100 million needed to alleviate plight of 800,000 following storms in Haiti... | more... |
• More than three million homeless and 90 dead in worst floods in 50 years in north-east India... | more... |
• WA politicians to directly address Christians in lead-up to September elections... | more... |
• Burma urged to release 2,000 "prisoners of conscience"... | more... |
• Australia's expanding waistlines to cost an extra $6 in health care over next 20 years, says report... | more... |
• Transport accidents and suicide leading causes of injury death among young Australians... | more... |
• Indigenous Australians still dying younger... | more... |
• Amnesty calls for "veil of secrecy" to be lifted on executions... | more... |
• One in 25 Australians had diabetes in 2004-05, says report... | more... |
• Worship improves health, says US professor... | more... |
• Afghanistan accounts for 93 per cent of world's illicit opiates... | more... |
• Two million Australians abused at Christmas thanks to excess alcohol intake, says report... | more... |
• 45,000 dying a month in Congo... | more... |
• Cocaine use rising in Europe... | more... |
• UN committee calls for moratorium on the death penalty... | more... |
• Burmese military recruiting child soldiers, says Human Rights Watch... | more... |
• Tougher border controls may lead to worsening Iraqi refugee crisis says Amnesty... | more... |
• Russia, China and India named on world's worst polluted places list... | more... |
• Almost two million Australians below poverty line - report... | more... |
• Infectious diseases emerging at unprecedented rate, says WHO report... | more... |
• Subprime mortgage crisis bites US property owners with a 93 per cent rise in foreclosures... | more... |
• Australians fatter, less likely to marry and spending more, ABS finds... | more... |
• Christianity remains largest religion in Australia but non-Christian groups growing at a faster rate... | more... |
• Average Australian is a 37-year-old living in a couple family with children... | more... |
• One in eight Australian children living in house with alcohol misuse or substance dependence, report finds... | more... |
• Australia's household water consumption among world's highest, says study... | more... |
• A billion more refugees by 2050, says Christian Aid... | more... |
• Iraq has made the least - and Egypt the most - progress in saving the lives of young children since 1990, says humanitarian agency... | more... |
• Afghanistan increasingly deadly for civilians, says Human Rights Watch... | more... |
• Workplace habits putting strain on families - report... | more... |
• Most Australians see marriage as "lifetime goal", says poll... | more... |
• More than 11 per cent of Australian children living in poverty, says UNICEF report... | more... |
• A third of 18 to 24-year-olds admit they are "binge" drinkers, research finds... | more... |
• New international commitment to end use of child 'soldiers'... | more... |
• Almost one in ten Australians have tried methamphetamine, says report... | more... |
• Health authorities record a 60 per cent drop in measles deaths... | more... |
• North Korea, Iraq and Ethiopia top worst persecutors list... | more... |
• North Korean refugees say food shortage problem no better... | more... |
• Two per cent of adults own more than half of global household wealth, says research... | more... |
• Call for action on newborn deaths... | more... |
• Global index finds link between corrruption and poverty... | more... |
• Violence against children 'hidden', says landmark UN report... | more... |
• Global military spending tops Cold War levels, says Oxfam... | more... |
• Australians spend $996 per adult on gambling... | more... |
• One in eight Australians 'binge drinking', says survey... | more... |
• Toowoomba in Queensland most generous postcode, according to World Vision data... | more... |
• Firearms used in almost 40 per cent of all homicides, says global survey... | more... |
• Moscow most expensive city, says report... | more... |
• 38 million living with HIV, says latest global survey... | more... |
• Only one in 20 children who need treatment for HIV receive it, says report... | more... |
• North Korea allows emergency food aid to resume... | more... |
• Australian drug seizures topped 13 tonnes in 2004-2005... | more... |
• Australian government lags on aid, according to OECD... | more... |
• Indigenous Australians dying 20 years younger says report... | more... |
• Coffee consumption hits a high... | more... |
• Australians getting fatter and drinking more alcohol... | more... |
• Droughts leaves millions facing starvation in Africa's Horn... | more... |
• Tsunami-affected children in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand positive about future but a different story in Indonesia, says UNICEF... | more... |
• Australians spend an average of $550 on Christmas presents, survey finds... | more... |
• More than 40 million people living with HIV... | more... |
• US names countries violating religious freedom... | more... |
• Recycling is up but Australians still generate 2.25 kilograms of waste a day... | more... |
• Australians spending $17 a week on gambling... | more... |
• More than 40 per cent of Australians involved in volunteering... | more... |
• World facing fewer and less deadly wars, says report... | more... |
• Poorest countries going backwards says report... | more... |
• More than a third of Malawi's population face "acute" food shortages... | more... |
• 200 million using illicit drugs, UN report finds... | more... |
• Hundreds of thousands living as slaves, according to US report... | more... |
• Only 32 per cent of Australians have no doubt God exists compared to 70 per cent in US, poll finds... | more... |
• Almost 10 per cent of Australians living in poverty - report... | more... |
• Burns specialist Fiona Wood most "trusted" Australian says poll... | more... |
• Child abuse 'pandemic' in Australia - report... | more... |
• UK church survey says pews emptying because Christianity is no longer preached... | more... |
• Passion, Jamie Foxx and Disney win at 'Christian Oscars'... | more... |
• Call for an end to 'child slavery'... | more... |
• New push for organ donation in Australia... | more... |
• No genocide but killings continue in Sudan, says UN report... | more... |
• The Passion of the Christ the people's choice in the US... | more... |
• Christians happier and more purposeful says report... | more... |
• More than half the world's children suffering “extreme deprivations” as a result of poverty, war and HIV/AIDS - UNICEF... | more... |
• South African Christian leaders urging people to protest homosexual 'marriage'... | more... |
• Churches closed and pastors in hiding in eastern Nepal, claims Baptist World Alliance... | more... |
• Most Australian children still growing up in families with two natural parents, according to new report... | more... |
• World thinks eradication of poverty and hunger most important - report... | more... |
• Humans consuming natural resources at an unsustainable rate, warns WWF report... | more... |
• One in 12 children dying under the age of five, says report... | more... |
• 57 per cent of Australian women subject of at least one incidence of violence, says survey... | more... |
• 10 pastors arrested and then released in Iran... | more... |
• 40,000 Christians march through Berlin... | more... |
• 100 house church leaders detained in China... | more... |
• Australian churches express solidarity Iraqi Christians following attacks... | more... |
• Christian churches targeted in Iraq bomb attacks... | more... |
• Five African nations ranked worst in life expectancy, health and education, says annual UN index... | more... |
• Human Rights Watch calls for release for Vietnamese church leader... | more... |
• Decline in scripture distribution reported... | more...|
• Churches call for an end to children in immigration detention... | more... |
• Friars ask Gibson to make a film about St Francis... | more... |
• Almost half of all families in southern Iraq have suffered human rights violations, says report... | more... |
• As many as 3.5 million live in poverty says Senate committee report... | more... |
• Jesus greatest example of a leader says Governor-General... | more... |
• Many governments still violating human rights, says US... | more... |
• Oxfam calls for fashion industry to ensure workers' labour rights...| more... |
• Australian children prefer watching TV and reading to sport and
the arts... |
more... |
• Widow of McDonald's founder gives $US1.5 billion to the Salvation Army... | more... |
• In Nairobi, it takes workers three hours to earn enough money to pay for a Big Mac compared with 19 minutes in Sydney... | more... |
• Singapore has highest rate of executions claims Amnesty report ... | more... |
• Australians pledge $1 million toward helping Bam earthquake victims... | more... |
• Ministers of religion come 12th in ethics and honesty ratings... | more...|
• Nearly a billion children suffering from poverty: study... | more... |
Number of humanitarian program visas Australia granted to refugees in 2008-09: 13,507
Source: Department of Immigration and Citizenship
Life expectancy at birth of indigenous males compared to non-indigenous males: 67.2 years/78.7 years
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 'The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples', 2010.
Estimated number of people who die as a result of gun violence in the US each year: 30,000
Source: The Guardian, 'All Americans free to carry firearms, rules Supreme Court', 29th June, 2010
Number of games played by American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in their record-breaking, three day, round one match at Wimbledon Tennis Championships (in which Isner won): 183
Number of Australian churches which took part in the National Day of Thanksgiving 2010: About 5,000
Source: National Day of Thanksgiving
Claimed age of the oldest person found by Census officials in Indonesia: 157
Source: www.abc.net.au, 'Census records 157-year-old woman', 7th June, 2010
Estimated amount of oil which has been leaking into Gulf of Mexico daily since an explosion on the Deepwater horizon rig in April: 795,000 litres
Source: www.abc.net.au, 27th May, 2010. (BP announced on 28th May, 2010, that the spill has finally been capped)
Amount organised crime takes from the Australian economy annually: More than $15 billion
Source: 'Organised crime rips $15bn out of the economy', www.theage.com.au, 16th May 2010
Number of US operating satellites in orbit compared with the number of operating Russian satellites, the country with the next greatest number: 437/95
Source: Union of Concerned Scientists
Death toll as a result of an earthquake which struck in Yushu County, Qinghai Province, China, on 14th April, 2010 (as at 18th April, 2010): More than 1700
Australia's population as at 30th September, 2009: 22,066,000
Source: www.abs.gov.au
Number of assassination attempts made on Cuban leader Fidel Castro: 638
Source: As reported in The Guardian newspaper, quoting makers of a Cuban documentary, on 11th March, 2010
Number of songs sold on Apple's iTunes: 10 billion
Number of people killed in terrorist, insurgent and sectarian-related incidents in Pakistan in 2009: 3,021
Source: Pak Institute for Peace Studies, Pakistan Security Report 2009
US public debt, as at 16th November, 2009: $US12.031 trillion
Source: www.abc.net.au
Size of Australian sheep flock in 1959 and 2009: 152.4 million/71.6 million
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (as quoted in The Age)
Number of 18-year-olds not enrolled to vote in Australia: Roughly 50 per cent
Source: Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn speaking at Senate hearings in Canberra, October 2009 (as quoted on www.abc.net.au)
Gambling losses in Australia, 2006-07: $18.18 billion
Source: Queensland Department of Treasury
Estimated number of child labourers (aged five to 14) around the world: 150 million
Source: UNICEF
Number of people who drowned in Australian waterways between 1st July 2008 and 30th June, 2009: 302
Source: Royal Life Saving Society - Australia
Number of people without house insurance in the US in 2008: 46.3 million
Source: US Census Bureau
Number of years until another across-the-board single digit date (as in 9.9.09): 992 (1.1.3001)
Number of children involved in divorces in Australia in 2008: 43,184
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Number of people who have died from swine flu (the N1H1 virus) in Australia as at 26th August, 2009: 138
Source: Australian Government
Worldwide military expenditure, 2008: US$1464 billion
Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Road deaths per 100,000 people in Australia, the United States, and The Netherlands: 7.8/13.9/4.8
Source: World Health Organisation, Global Status Report on Road Safety, June 2009
Number of men who have walked on the moon since Neil Armstrong took the first step in 1969: 11 (plus Armstrong, meaning 12 men in total have walked on the moon).
Number of people per 100,000 population who died on Australian roads in 1978 and 2007: 26/8
Source: World Health Organisation
Percentage of over 65s in Australia who have incomes below the OECD poverty threshold: 26.9 per cent
Source: OECD
Percentage of Australian homes which have high-speed internet: 72 per cent
Source: Strategy Analytics (as quoted on www.abc.net.au)
Estimated number of Australians who have used cannabis in their lifetime: 5.8 million
Source: Australian Crime Commission
Number of swine flu cases in Australia (as on 3rd June, 2009): 502
Source: Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon quoted on www.abc.net.au
Number of employed people who worked some hours at home during November, 2008: 2.4 million
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Number of countries reporting infections of Influenza A(H1N1) - also known as Swine Flu - as at 7th May, 2009: 23
Source: World Health Organisation
Estimated number of civillians killed in Sri Lanka in fighting between the government and rebels in the past three months: 4,500
Source: UN (as quoted in The Age on 22nd April, 2009)
Amount of wealth lost by the average Australian in the past year: $25,000
Source: CommSec economist, Savanth Sebastian, extrapolating from Treasury figures (as quoted in The Sydney Morning Herald on 16th April, 2009)
Amount the price of real estate has risen in parts of Kabul, Afghanistan, in the past year: 75 per cent
Source: The Telegraph (UK)
Number of resident departures from Australia in 2008: 5.9 million
Source: Department of Foreign Affairs figures reported in The Australian on 30th March, 2009
Number of people executed in 2008: At least 2,390
Source: Amnesty International
Number of billionaires in Australia in 2009: 10
Source: Forbes magazine
Percentage of Australians that swam in 1988-89 compared with those that do in 2007-08: 36 per cent compared with 22 per cent
Source: Sweeney Sports market research company as prepared for The Sunday Age (published on 8th February, 2009)
Number of Catholics across the globe in 2007: 1.147 billion
Source: 2009 edition of the Vatican yearbook, known as the Annuario Pontificio.
Possible number of Earth-like planets in the universe: 100 billion trillion
Source: Alan Boss, of the Carnegie Institute in Washington (as quoted in an article in the UK's Telegraph newspaper.
Number of civilians killed in Afghanistan in 2008: 2,118
Source: Protection of Civlians in Armed Conflict report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.
Percentage of Australians who live in rural areas in 1911 and 2006: 42 per cent/12 per cent
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics 'A Picture of the Nation: the Statistician’s Report on the 2006 Census.'
Amount spent at retailers in Australia during December 2007: $18,125 million
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Percentage of people in Australia who believe only half, a small portion, or none of the information found online is reliable: 60 per cent
Source: World Internet Project
Amount of rainforest destroyed for every gram of cocaine consumed in Britain: Four square metres
Source: Colombian Vice-President Francisco Santos Calderon speaking at a conference of senior police officers in November, 2008.
Youth murder rates per 100,000 Latin America versus Europe: 36.6 versus 1.2
Source: Map of Violence: The Young People of Latin America, Latin American Technological Information Network.
Number of ships attacked by pirates in 2007: 263
Source: Wall Street Journal (quoting International Maritime Bureau)
Degrees average world temperatures are expected to be above pre-industrial levels by 2100: Six
Source: International Energy Agency
Amount bet in Australia on the Melbourne Cup result in 2008: More than $150 million
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Number of people hungry in the world in 2008: At least 925 million
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organisation
Percentage growth of Amish population in the US between 1992 and 2008: 84 per cent
Source: The Young Centre for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College
Number of jars of Vegemite produced since it was created in 1922: 1 billion
Height of the Burj Dubai skyscraper currently under construction in the United Arab Emirates compared to the height of the world's next tallest building - the Taipei 101 in Taiwan: 688 metres/509 metres
Percentage of elderly Australians living on less than half the median Australian disposable income between 2001 and 2005: More than 50 per cent
Source: Melbourne Institute
Number of Bibles distributed by Bible Societies around the world in 2007: 26,996,323
Source: United Bible Societies.
Number of people displaced from their homes by floods in India in August and early September, 2008: 3 million
Source: Reuters
Number of drug-related murders in Mexico this year as of 24th August, 2008: 2,000
Source: Time Magazine
Number of people displaced in the conflict in South Ossetia: Approximately 100,000
Source: UNHCR
Number of people who go missing every year in Australia: Approximately 35,000
Source: www.missingpersons.gov.au
Number of Australian athletes expected to compete at the Beijing Olympics: 433
Source: www.olympics.com.au
Number of people said to have been killed as a result of a campaign of genocide in Darfur allegedly master-minded by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, according to International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo: 35,000
Source: Reuters.com
Number of Australians who are obese: Almost 4 million
Source: Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute
Percentage of Australia workforce that worked part-time in 2007: 29 per cent
Percentage in 1966: 10 per cent
Source: Productivity Commission
Number of days Australian soldiers were in Iraq in a combat role: 1902
Percentage of wild Tasmanian devil population killed as a result of facial tumour disease (putting the animal on Tasmania's threatened species list): Up to 60 per cent
Source: As reported on www.abc.net.au...
Amount the average Australian smoker spends on cigarettes in their lifetime: About $300,000
Source: Dr Ross Philpot, Medical Journal of Australia (as reported on www.abc.net.au)
Estimated number of female fetuses believed to have been aborted in India in the 20 years to 2006: 10 million
Source: Lancet, 2006.
Number of people executed around the world in 2007: At least 1,252
Source: Amnesty International.
Percentage by which the number of tigers in India has declined over the past decade: 60 per cent (now 1,411 tigers left in the wild)
Source: The Age newspaper, 18th February, 2008, quoting figures from the National Tiger Conservation Authority
Percentage of the world's population who are Christian: 33 per cent
Source: Vatican's 2008 yearbook of statistics.
Number of US troops killed in Iraq over the past five years (as at 23rd March, 2008): 4,000
Percentage of new mothers in Australia who suffer from post-natal depression: 10 per cent
Source: Study from the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newscastle (as quoted in the Herald Sun on 19th March, 2008).
Estimated number of hours women and children spend collecting water in Africa annually: 40 billion
Source: ActionAid report 'Hit or Miss - Women’s Rights and the Millennium Development Goals'
Wealth of US investor Warren Buffett, the world's richest man: $US62 billion
Source: Forbes
Proportion of people in the US currently behind bars: More than 1 in 100 (more than 2.3 million)
Source: Pew Center
Percentage of the world's oceans which have been "heavily affected" by human activity: 41 per cent
Source: Science magazine
Number of people in need of humanitarian aid in Somalia as at 13th February, 2008, thanks to intensified fighting in recent months: 2 million
Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Estimated world's meat supply in 1961 and 2007: 71 million tonnes and 284 million tonnes
Percentage Australian share market dropped on 22nd January, 2008, its biggest drop in 20 years: 7.1 per cent
Number of Scriptures given to Christians by the Bible League during 2007: 17,713,004
Source: Bible League Australia
Number of Iraqi children facing poor nutrition, disease and interrupted education: Two million
Source: UNICEF
Amount a middle income, two parent, family in Australia will spend raising two children from birth to the age of 21: About $537,000
Source: NATSEM
Number of homeless people in Australia: 100,000
Source: Australia's Welfare 2007
Number of people worldwide who do not have access to proper toilet facilities: 2.6 billion
Source: World Toilet Organisation
Revised estimate of people living with HIV globally in 2007 (down from last year's estimate of 39.5 million): 33.2 million
Source: www.un.org
Estimated number of former and current employees of Google who have more than $US5 million of the company's stock: 1,000
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
Median house price in Sydney, June quarter 2007: $525,500
Source: Real Estate Institute of Australia
Number of internally displaced people in Somalia as of 31st October, 2007: 800,000
Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Number of Australians living below the poverty line: 2.2 million
Source: Australia Fair report
Percentage of the 536,000 women who died of maternal causes in 2005 who live in developing countries: 99 per cent
Source: UNICEF
Number of Iraqi people displaced from their homes: 4.2 million
Source: Amnesty International
Year by which scientists predict the Arctic Circle will be "virtually free" of ice: 2070
Source: AP, 15th September, 2007
Number of working days lost each year in Australia due to depression: More than 6 million
Source: Beyond Blue (as quoted in The Age on 8th September, 2007)
Estimated amount of damage caused in a week of devastating wild fires in Greece: $US1.6 billion
Source: Los Angeles Times
Number of internally displaced Iraqis: 1.1 million
Source: Iraqi Red Crescent Organisation
Number of babes estimated to be born into Australia's most disadvantaged communities annually: 37,000
Source: Brotherhood of St Lawrence
Number of people affected by the South Asian monsoonal floods this year: 30 million
Source: UNICEF
Australian household debt in May, 2007: $1 trillion
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Estimated number of Kalashnikov rifles produced since its invention 60 years ago: More than 100 million
Source: AP
Population of Australia, as at 9.32pm (and 58 seconds) on 29th June, 2007: 21 million
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Number of Australians who say they are Christian: 12.7 million
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2006 Census
Maximum height of the tsunami which hit Java in Indonesia last July: 21 metres
Source: International Tsunami Survey Team
Number of street children in Kabul, Afghanistan: 50,000 to 60,000
Source: UNICEF (as reported by AFP)
Difference in life expectancy between an indigenous child and a non-indigenous child in Australia: 17 years
Source: Australian Medical Association
India's slum-dwelling population in 2001:61.8 million
Source: Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja (as quoted in The Times newspaper, London)
Number of people who added to the world's urban population each year: More than 60 million
Source: Worldwatch Institute
Number of children who die each year from easily preventable or treatable causes: 10.1 million
Source: Save the Children
Estimated number of casualties as a result of Sri Lanka's ongoing civil war: 65,000
Source: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
Percentage of Australia's gross value for agricultural production accounted for by Murray-Darling basin producers and now under drought threat: 40 per cent
Source: Murray-Darling Basin Commission
Estimated world population in 2050: 9.2 billion
Source: UN population Division
Estimated amount lost to the "Australian community" as a result of identit\y theft: More than $1 billion
Source: Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce and Australian Competition and Consumer Commission
Number of people in the world aged 15 years and over classified as being overweight in 2005: 1.6 billion
Source: World Health Organisation
Number of homicides in Australia in 2004-05: 267
Source: Australian Institute of Criminology
Number of species of bacteria found living on human skin: 182
Source: Microbiologist Dr Martin Blaser, of New York University School of Medicine, in research published in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Amount of wine consumed by Australians during the past year: More than 430 million litres
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Number of bits of debris larger than 10cm in orbit around the earth: About 11,000
Source: NASA Orbital Debris Program Office
Number of hectares claimed by bushfires in Victoria up until mid-January, 2007: More than 1 million
Source: www.abc.net.au
Number of prisoners in Australian prisons as at 30th June, 2006: 25,790
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics
Number of US military personnel killed in Iraq since the invasion began in March 2003 (as at late December, 2006): 3,000
Source: CNN
Number of telemarketing calls received in Australia each year: Up to 1.5 billion, equating to 75 calls for every person in the country
Source: Herald Sun newspaper (11th December, 2006)
Number of children who die within 28 days of birth in sub-Saharan Africa every year: At least 1.16 million
Source: 'Opportunities For Africa’s Newborns', Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (released 22nd November 2006)
Global number of websites: 100,000,000
Source: Internet monitoring company Netcraft (November 2006)
Number of corruption cases discovered by police in Russia during the first eight months of the year: 28,000
Source: Quoted by Russia's deputy prosecutor-general Alexander Buksman in an article published in the Guardian newspaper.
Number of "hungry children" around the world: 400 million
Source: Quoted by James Morris, executive director of the World Food Programme, to mark World Food Day on 16th October, 2006
Number of unexploded cluster bomblets in southern Lebanon: Up to 1 million
Source: UN Mine Action Co-odination Centre - South Lebanon
New estimate of the number of people killed in Sudan's Darfur conflict: 170,000 to 255,000
Source: New research by American professors John Hagan and Alberto Palloni as published in Science (as reported in The Age newspaper on 16th September, 2006)
Number of children and youth aged between five and 17 years trapped in hazardous work in 2004: 126 million
Source: International Labour Organisation
Number of Australians drinking at risky or high risk levels: 1 in 8
Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, 25th August, 2006
Estimated cost of infrastructure damage in Lebanon: $A3.26 billion
Source: From the Los Angeles Times (as quoted in The Age, 14th August, 2006)
Inflation rate in Zimbabwe: 1,200 per cent
Source: Telegraph.co.uk (2nd August, 2006)
Number of children in Africa who die every hour from malaria: 120
Source: World Economic Forum report 'Business and Malaria: A neglected threat?'
Number of cannabis users worldwide: 162 million
Source: World Drug Report 2006, UN Office on Drugs and Crime
Number of pirate attacks reported off the coast of Somalia in 2004 and 2005: 2 and 35
Source: International Maritime Bureau's annual report 2005
Number of deaths caused by firearms in Colombia: 1 in 10
Source: United Nations Small Arms Review Conference 2006 - 27th June, 2006
Combined 2005 income of the top 20 people on Forbes magazine's 'Celebrity 100' list: $US2,048 million
Source: Forbes.com - 15th June, 2006
Number of Congolese people dying every day from war-related causes (including illnesses treatable in peacetime): 1,250
Source: The International Rescue Committee (as quoted in Time magazine - 5th June, 2006)
Number of civilians reportedly killed in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion: Between 35,101 and 39,258
Source: Iraq Body Count - www.iraqbodycount.net (10th May, 2006)
Number of annual leave days owed Australians: 70 million
Source: Tourism Australia (2nd May, 2006)
Number of chocolate easter eggs Australians eat per capita: 20
Source: Based on data from the Confectionery Manufacturers of Australasia (as quoted in the Herald Sun newspaper on 11th April, 2006)
Number of West Papuans estimated by human rights groups to have been killed during conflict between the independence movement and Indonesian authorities: 100,000
Source: The Age, 4th April, 2006
Estimate of damage caused by Cyclone Larry in Queensland: $1 billion
Source: Various media reports
Number of billionaires (US dollars) in the world: 793
Source: Forbes magazine
Percentage of Australian males who are either obese or overweight: 65 per cent
Source: National Health Survey, Australian Bureau of Statistics
Number of people
believed buried in a landslide in the village of Guinsaugon on the island of
Leyte in The Philippines: 1,400
Source: Various news reports, February, 2006
Average CEO salary in Australia in 2005: $3.4 million
Source: Research of Dr John Shields at the University of Sydney (as quoted in the Herald-Sun newspaper)
Number of Mexicans who died trying to cross into the United States last year: 500
Source: Maurico Farah of Mexico's Human Rights Commission as quoted in 'The Guardian' newspaper.
Temperatures recorded in some of the highest villages in earthquake-affected northern Pakistan in early January, 2006: -13 degrees Celcius
Source: UNHCR
Number of people supported by the UN World Food Programme's food aid in 2004: 113 million
Source: UN World Food Programme
Australia's 2005 mean temperature (making it the warmest year on record): 22.89 degrees Celcius
Source: Bureau of Meterology
Number of
people killed or injured by landmines and other explosive remnants of war annually:
15,000 to 20,000
Source: United Nations
Number of people who died from AIDS-related illness during the past year: More than 3,000,000
Source: UNAIDS/World Health Organisation.
Number of people using the internet worldwide: 964,289,701
Source: www.internetworldstats.com.
Amount of food thrown away in Australia every year: 3.3 million tonnes
Source: Planet Ark - 'Ten Years of Recycling - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Number of children who die from AIDS every hour: 60
Source: UNICEF
Number of dead in armed conflicts in the world in 2003: 24,000
Source: Human Security Report 2005
Life expectancy at birth in Niger in 2003: 44.4 years
Source: United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index
Number of
cases referred to governments by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances since 1980: 50,000
Source: Working Group on Enforced on Involuntary
Disappearances
Christians as a percentage of the world population in mid 2005: 33.1 per cent
Source: Center for the Study of Global Christianity, January 2005
Estimated
number of refugees worldwide: 9.2 million
Source: UNHCR 2004 Global Refugee Trends
Number of people illegally trafficked across international borders each year:
600,000-800,000
Source: US State Department 2005 Trafficking in Persons
Report
Estimated number of Sri Lankan children who lost one or more parents during the January tsunami: 4,622
Source: UNICEF, UNHOC (as of March, 2005)