Facts & Trends

4.36 - The average rainfall, in inches, for the contiguous United States in May, the country’s wettest month since record keeping began in 1895 ...

Baby Boomers who frequently used recreational drugs like marijuana and cocaine in their youth are now turning back to drugs like Oxycontin for relief of age-related pain and illness. As a result, the fatal-overdose rate for people ages 45 to ...

Americans drink far less today than our predecessors did. In 1830, the average American drank the equivalent of 7.1 gallons of pure alcohol per year. In 2013, by comparison, the average American drank the equivalent of 2.34 gallons of pure ...

A Canadian man nearly blew off his own head while trying to kill a mouse with a rifle.  Dale Whitmell, 40, tried to crush the scampering rodent with the butt of his rifle, but when he slammed the weapon on ...

After eight years of war, bombings, and brutal sectarian violence, Iraq's civilian population is now suffering an epidemic of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental illnesses, health officials there say.  But there are only 100 psychiatrists to serve a ...

Number of deaths in traffic accidents for every 100,000 vehicles on the road in developed nations: 11 In Ethiopia: 3,865 ...

Number of UFO sighting reports made to England’s Ministry of Defence since 1959: 12,400 ...

As the population ages and lives longer, dementia has become one of the country's most expensive medical conditions, with $109 billion in direct medical costs in 2010, a new RAND study found. The medical cost of dementia exceeds that of ...

A family of Norwegian bears broke into a holiday cabin and threw an epic, alcohol-fueled party.  The cabin's owner, Even Nilsen, returned to the cabin to find that the bears had eaten all the food and bitten into more than ...

Percentage of British businessmen who travel with their teddy bears: 25 Percentage of British men who say they share  “all their secrets” with their teddy bears: 15 ...