--YOU BELONG TO SOMEONE ELSE, BUT YOU SEEM HAPPY ENOUGH

…I'm still sort of reeling from last week's excursion into Boston, but I have managed to learn a few things since I've been back, and so I thought I’d share them with you... 

…There are 40 million foreign-born people in the US, up from 9.6 million in 1970

…Spain's unemployment rate is 25%, 52% for Spanish youth

…The percentage of births to unmarried women has increased eightfold in the past 50 years and it is now 40.8% of all births.

…2.4 --Times more likely a woman will share her phone number when approached by a man near a flower shop versus a shoe store

…There are 158.3 million females in the US.  23 million are mothers in the workplace

…There are currently 1,360 radical militias and anti-government groups in the US

…There are 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S., up 3 million from ten years ago

…19,000 of the more than 31,000 gun-related deaths in the US each year are due to suicide.

…The Army recorded its worst year in decades for soldiers killing themselves--with 323 deaths in 2012.

…1.3 million vehicles were repossessed last year, the lowest tally in 12 years.  That's down 31.8% from the recessionary peak year of 2009.

…People watch 4 billion YouTube videos every day.

…Someone with 24 pounds of body fat can last up to 60 days without food.

…84 percent of Americans think Global Warming is a serious, or somewhat serious concern.

…It costs $30,000 a year to house a single federal prisoner.

…The U.S. birthrate is its lowest since 1920.

…There are 2.2 billion of the world’s people, or 32 percent, who consider themselves to be adherents of the Christian faith. Islam follows in second place, with 1.6 billion believers. In third place is the category “none,” consisting of 1.1 billion of the world’s people who claim no religious affiliation or proclaim themselves to be atheists or agnostics.

…The world’s Hindu population totals 1 billion, followed by 500 million Buddhists, according to Pew. There are 14 million Jews in the world.

…The percentage of student loans that are 90 days or more delinquent has increased from 6% to 11% over the last 10 years.  Total outstanding student loans ($956 billion) are now approximately 12% larger than outstanding credit card balances.

…Soda consumption has decreased by nearly 30% in the last decade

…In Britain, an average of 18 pubs close every day.  Nearly 6,000 landlords have gone out of business in the last four years.