Facts & Trends

In 2012, some 2.9 million adults and teens tried an illicit drug for the first time. More than 80% of them used pot. Among all pot users, 40% take the drug 20 or more days a month. Two states have ...

60% - Share of the planet’s largest herbivores, including elephants, gorillas and rhinos, at risk of extinction, according to a new study ...

The sicker the oceans get, the more of their habitable regions vanish.  Loss of aquatic habitats is mirroring the earlier pattern on land, which began with the Industrial Revolution and continues today ...

61% - Percentage of employed vacationers who plan to work during their time off doing tasks such as... 38% - Emailing 32% - Accessing work documents on computer 30% - Calling 24% - Texting 20% - Fielding requests by boss, client or co-worker to do work ...

British scientists invented a cellphone battery powered by urine. This “is about as eco as it gets,” said one researcher, noting that urine is a renewable resource ...

One year after Boko Haram abducted 276 Christian teenage girls from a northern Nigerian boarding school, authorities are no closer to finding them—and more have been taken. Amnesty International said this week that the Islamist group has captured at least 2,000 ...

Estimated amount spent globally on fertility drugs and devices this year: $4,054,984,000 Percentage of first-time fertility treatments that fail: 75 ...

About a dozen inmates die behind bars each day, or about 4,400 jail and prison inmates each year. In jails, suicide is the leading cause of death ...

Representatives from eight rural Colorado counties began making plans to form a breakaway state, North Colorado, to escape the state’s gun-control laws and oil-industry regulations. “This is not a stunt,” said Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway. “Our very way of ...

Size of India’s annual deficit in female births, based on 2011 census data: 600,000 ...