Interesting Statistics and what does life want from you?

What Does Life Want From You?

Viktor Frankl, a Jewish physician who spent the years of the Second World War in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau, related, "I remember my dilemma in a concentration camp when faced with a man and a woman who were close to suicide; both had told me that they expected nothing more from life. I asked both my fellow prisoners whether the question was really what we expected from life. Was it not, rather, what life was expecting from us? I suggested that life was awaiting something from them."
The person who feels despair and discouragement is asking the wrong question. He asks what the world is giving him. As soon as he changes his question to what is the good that he can do, he will always be able to find an answer.
Love Yehuda

Depending upon your definition, and whether or not you count Taiwan , there are "approximately"  196 countries in the world as of this writing. So while you may consider yourself to be a knowledgeable global citizen, and I'm sure you are, given the dynamic and complex nature of our planet there are certain to be at least a couple facts on this list that you will find surprising, and probably MOST of this is true.

Here are 25 things that you wouldn't believe about some of these countries.

25: Country that covers the most time zones - France


 

If you count everything, including overseas territories, then France claims the title by covering 12 time zones. United States would be the runner-up with 11 and then  Russia with 9. Single continental size countries put Russia as #1 and Canada   as #2.

24: Country most  likely to disappear beneath the waves - Maldives

 
With all the talks  of global warming and rising sea levels, it is the residents of the Maldives   that have the greatest reason to fear. With an average height of around 1.8  meters above sea level their nation is the lowest on  Earth.

23: Country with  largest overweight population - Nauru

 

With over 95% of  its population being overweight, the small island nation of Nauru is by far  the fattest country on Earth. Its obesity epidemic is primarily attributed to  the importation of western fast food that coincided with an increased standard  of living in the 20th century due to the global popularity of its phosphate exports. It's almost non sequitur… almost.



22: Country with  most roads made of coral - Guam

 

Because Guam  doesn't have any natural sand, but rather coral, the island nation makes its  asphalt using a mix of ground coral and oil rather than importing sand from  abroad.


21: Country with  most sheep - Falkland Islands ( UK )

 With only about  3,000 people the Falkland Islands are home to approximately 500,000 sheep. Not  surprisingly wool is a major export. That's 350 sheep per  person.


20: Oldest  sovereign state - Egypt

 

This largely  depends upon your definition of a sovereign state, but if you are going by  first acquisition of sovereignty then Egypt would be the first country in the  world to achieve sovereignty based upon the formation of the first dynasty in  3100 BC.

19: Country with  most lakes in the world - Canada

 
With over 3,000,000  lakes, 9% of Canadian territory is actually fresh water and over 60% of all  the lakes in the world, are found within its borders.

18: Country where  you are least likely to meet your neighbor -  Mongolia

 
At 1.5 people per  square kilometer, Mongolia is the least densely populated country on Earth.  Compare this to the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong that has the highest  population density in the world with 131,000 people per square  kilometre.


17: Country with  largest number of tanks - Russia

 
It is a strange  title to hold, but Russia has by far the most tanks of any army in the world  (21,000). Unfortunately for the motherland most of these outdated machines are  tributes to its past, and although outnumbered (16,000), the United States has  a much more advanced tank inventory.

16: Country with no  rivers - Saudi Arabia

 
Sounds a bit  strange doesn't it? For a country as big as Saudi Arabia there has to be at  least some sort of flowing water. Well, there isn't. Most of their fresh water  comes from desalinization plants or underground  reservoirs.


15: Country with  youngest population - Niger

 
Generally the  world's youngest country is determined by calculating the portion of the  population that is younger than 15. Presently it is Niger that holds this  distinction with roughly half of its population having barely reached puberty  (49%).


14: Most diverse  country in the world - India

 
In almost every  category - culturally, economically, climatically, racially, linguistically,  ethnically, and religiously, India is either the most diverse country in the  world, or the runner-up.
 


13: Fastest  disappearing nation - Ukraine

 
With a natural  decrease in population of .8% annually, between now and 2050 Ukraine is  expected to lose around 30% of its people.


12: Country with most of its citizens living abroad - Malta

 
After some rough  economic times coupled with an increased birth rate, Malta experienced  significant emigration. It was so significant that there are now more Maltese  living abroad than within the country itself.

11: Country that is  smaller than Central Park in New York City - Monaco

 Although Vatican  City is smaller (.44 square kilometres) than Monaco (2.07 square kilometres),  unlike Monaco it doesn't have any permanent residents which leaves Monaco as  the smallest permanently inhabited nation in the world… smaller than New York City's Central Park.

10: Country almost  entirely covered in jungle - Suriname

 
With 91% of its  land covered in jungle, Suriname 's 500,000 residents live primarily along the  coast near the capital. Only 5% of the population (mainly indigenous people)  live inland.

9: Country that is  almost entirely treeless - Haiti

 
On the opposite end  of the spectrum is Haiti , a country that has been so badly deforested that  you can tell where it borders the Dominican Republic by looking at a satellite  image ( Haiti is on the left in the photo above).


8: Country that has  absolutely no farms - Singapore

 
Although there are  a number of small nations in the world that show no hint of having an agriculture based economy, (take Vatican City for example) Singapore is the  largest of these urban city-states.


7: Country with  most languages spoken - Papua New Guinea

 
Although English is  its official language, only 1 - 2% of the population actually speak it. As the  most linguistically diverse country in the world, over 820 languages are  spoken in Papua New Guinea , or 12% of the world's  total.


6: Country with  most educated people - Canada

 
With 50% of its  population having been educated at the Post Secondary level, Canada easily has  the most educated populace in the world. It is followed by Israel at 45% and  Japan at 44%.


5: "Country desert"  - Libya

 
With 99% of the  country covered in desert, Libya is one of the most arid places in the world  and in some regions, decades may go by without a single drop of  rain.

4: Least peaceful  nation in the world - Somalia

 
Although for the  last three years Iraq has been ranked as the least peaceful country in the  world, according to the 'Global Peace Index', Somalia overtook it this year  for the top spot.

3: Country that produces most of the world's oxygen - Russia

 
Siberia is home to  approximately 25% of the world's forests that span an area larger than the  continental United States, making Russia the largest converter of  CO2 into breathable compounds.

2: Largest  opium-producing country in the world - Afghanistan

 
Producing a  whopping 95% of the world's opium, not even 10 years of occupation by American  forces have slowed down the industry.


1: Country with  most people behind bars - United States

 7.3 million in the United States are behind bars. 

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