Facts & Trends

A Pew survey found that one in five Americans is not affiliated with any religion. “Nones” are growing faster than any religious group in America ...

A Telefonica - Financial Times survey asked more than 12,000 millennials if their country's "best days" lay ahead. Here's the positive vote by the region... Asia - 79% Latin America - 78% Central and Eastern Europe - 69% Middle East ...

Researchers who swabbed and tested DNA from surfaces in New York City's subway system identified 562 species of bacteria, including microbes from mozzarella, sausage, hummus, kimchi, sauerkraut, rats, mice, and lice. Geneticist Christopher E. Mason said the bacteria found were ...

In 2011, the poorest 20 percent of Americans gave 3.2 percent of their income to charity.  The wealthiest 20 percent were far stingier, donating just 1.3 percent.  Researchers say those with less to share may have "higher empathy" because they're ...

To delay aging, spend more time standing up. That’s the surprising conclusion of a new study by Swedish scientists, reports The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). Researchers at Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm took blood samples from a group of sedentary, overweight ...

On the 35th anniversary of its launch, the Voyager 1 spacecraft is close to becoming the first man-made object to escape our solar system. The spacecraft—run by a 1977 computer 100,000 times less powerful than an iPod Nano—is currently 11.3 ...

The FBI has files on roughly 77.7 million people in the U.S.—the equivalent of one in three American adults. As many as 12,000 new names are added to its master criminal database every day, largely as the result of minor arrests ...

Percentage of countries worldwide in which girls outperform boys in academic   achievement: 70 ...

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India's first air-quality index in April, but pollution will keep growing unless India stems coal production, which Modi has pledged to double by 2020 ...

75% - Percentage of workers worldwide who do not have a permanent job, according to the International Labor Organization. Global unemployment reached an estimated 201 million in 2014; most people work without a contract or are self-employed ...