Estimated percentage of U.S. households that have pets, according to a survey conducted by Pet Supplies "Plus": 50

Percentage of owners who will spend more on their pets than on their spouses when buying gifts: 28

Percentage who will spend more on their pets than on their in-laws: 54

Source: Pet Supplies "Plus."

Percentage increase in price over the last year of the 12 days of gifts mentioned in the traditional song, according to Pittsburgh-based PNC Wealth Management: 10.8

Estimated price of the five gold rings, up a third from last year: $649.95

Percentage increase in the cost of turtle doves: 78

Percentage increase in the cost of the three French hens: 233

Source: PNC Wealth Management.

Percentage of households that have an HDTV today, up from 16 percent in 2007, according to Scarborough Research: 48

Percentage of households that have at least one smart phone today, up from 7 percent in 2007: 14

Percentage of households that have at least one MP3 player today, up from 18 percent in 2007: 36

Source: Scarborough Research.

Percentage of U.S. adults who say they send cards during the Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year's season: 76

Percentage who like to receive lengthy "form letter" updates from family and friends: 51

Percentage of respondents who say they send cards to bring joy to others: 70

Percentage who do it to feel happy: 54

Source: Harris Interactive.

Percentage of bank customers who have been hit with a negative credit experience for the first time in their lives during the past two years, according to a Deloitte Center for Financial Services survey: 11

Overall, percentage of consumers who have experienced a serious negative credit situation since the peak of the crisis in September 2008, including events such as delinquency, foreclosure, bankruptcy and charge-offs: 22

Source: Deloitte Center for Financial Services.

Approximate number of real Christmas trees sold in the U.S. every year, according to the National Christmas Association: 25-30 million

Estimated number of real Christmas trees currently growing on Christmas tree farms in the U.S.: 350 million

Estimated number of farms growing Christmas trees in the U.S.: 15,000

Source: National Christmas Tree Association.

Percentage of American workers who plan to make a dent in their holiday shopping during work hours -- either through online shopping while at work, shopping on lunch breaks, taking sick days or cutting out a little early periodically, according to the survey conducted on behalf of Adecco: 46

Percentage of workers whose jobs require the use of e-mail and voicemail regularly who plan to stay connected to the workplace throughout key holidays including Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Day: 71

Source: Adecco.

Ranks of local TV news, broadcast primetime dramas and sitcoms and broadcast network primetime reality TV among program genres selected by viewers when asked which type of program "is a major part of my daily routine," according to a survey conducted for Hearst Television by Frank N. Magid Associates Inc.: 1, 2, 3

Percentage of respondents who said they "pay more attention" to local TV news than most other TV genres: 45

Source: Hearst Television Inc.

Percentage of corporations that plan to spend about the same on corporate gifts for both employees and prospects or clients, according to a survey from Successful Promotions magazine: 57

Ranks of food, calendars and gift cards on the list of the most commonly cited client or prospect gifts: 1, 2, 3

Ranks of gift cards, cash bonuses and apparel on the list of the most commonly cited gifts for employees: 1, 2, 3

Source: Advertising Specialty Institute.

Percentage of coupon users who now cite the Internet or e-mail as a source for coupons, according to Mintel: 32

Percentage of consumers who said they got coupons from the Internet or had them sent to their e-mail account five years ago: 19

Percentage of respondents who say their coupons come from leaflets inserted in newspapers: 71

Source: Mintel Comperemedia.

Idle Thought

"If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers." -- Irvin S. Cobb, author and journalist

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Average amount that holiday shoppers plan to spend on holiday gifts, according to PriceGrabber's holiday survey: $845

Of online consumers, percentage who said that they plan to spend $500 or more on holiday gifts (up 7 percent from last year): 66

Percentage of total purchases that the average 2010 holiday shopper will make online: 57

Source: PriceGrabber.com.

Percentage of all adults in the U.S. who were married in 2008, according to a Pew Research Center nationwide survey, done in association with Time magazine and complemented by an analysis of demographic and economic data from the U.S. Census Bureau: 52

Percentage who were married in 1960: 72

Percentage of respondents who say that marriage is becoming obsolete: 39

When Time posed this question to registered voters in 1978, percentage who agreed: 28

Despite growing uncertainties, percentage of Americans who are optimistic about the future of marriage and family: 67

Source: PEW Internet and American Life Project.

Percentage of the affluent who said they will not buy any gifts for this holiday season, according to a survey of the wealthiest 10 percent of U.S. households by the American Affluence Research Center: 12

Estimated number of households represented by the wealthiest 10 percent: 11.4 million

Percentage overall average decline from the $2,399 that the respondents say they spent on gifts in 2009: 3.9

Source: American Affluence Research Center.

Ranks of employee attitudes, effective management, strong trust relationships, and customer focus on the list of elements that workers find to be critical to company culture, according to Randstad's Work Watch survey: 1, 2, 3, 4

Percentage of workers who describe their current work culture as "all hands on deck": 38

Percentage who describe their work culture as a "process" culture, where it's all about data, grids and forms: 18

Percentage who describe their work culture as a "work hard/play hard" culture: 16

Source: Randstad-USA.

Percentage of workers who admitted to falling asleep on the job, according to a CareerBuilder survey: 45

Percentage who admitted to kissing a co-worker: 39

Percentage who admitted to spreading a rumor about a co-worker: 22

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Percentage of people who use the same password to log into multiple websites, according to research commissioned by Webroot: 41

Percentage of all users who never use special characters (e.g., exclamation marks, question marks, ampersands, etc.) in their passwords: 49

Percentage who have used a significant date, such as a birthdate, or a pet's name as a password -- information that's often publicly visible on social networks: 20

Source: Webroot Software Inc.

Percentage of drivers who say they are guilty of eating while driving during the past 60 days, according to a Kelley Blue Book poll: 21

Percentage who admitted to texting while driving: 13

Percentage who fiddled with the navigation system: 12

Source: Kelley Blue Book.

Percentage of U.S. travelers who confess to taking a vacation simply because they found a great deal, according to TripAdvisor: 60

Percentage of savvy travelers, unafraid to shop around, who subscribe to deals newsletters: 69

Of those who subscribe, percentage who receive between one and five deals newsletters: 81

Source: TripAdvisor.

Among online shoppers, percentage who search for online coupons or deals when they purchase something on the Internet, according to an online shopping poll conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of Offers.com: 63

Percentage who do so regularly: 21 (9 percent who do so always, and 12 percent who do so most of the time)

Percentage who do so sporadically: 42

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Predicted percentage rise in food import bills for the world's poorest countries in 2010, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: 11

Predicted percentage rise for low-income food-deficit countries: 20

Source: FAO.

Idle Thought

"Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual." -- Arthur Koestler, novelist and journalist

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)

Percentage of students who said they didn't feel fully prepared to manage their own money when they went to college, according to a BookRenter College Experience survey: 77

Percentage of respondents who believed that it was a parent's responsibility to actively teach them about money: 85

Percentage of students who felt that the onus of learning about money is on them: 5

Source: BookRenter.

Percentage of Americans who said that if they should suddenly inherit a large sum of money, they would start a business, according to findings from a Flash Eurobarometer study investigating attitudes toward entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs in the 27 European Union member states, the U.S. and 50 Chinese cities: 14

Percentage of Chinese who would use an inheritance to start a business: 41

Percentage of Americans who would save the money: 48

Percentage of Chinese who would save the money: 23

Source: Gallup.

Percentage forecast rise in Christmas sales this year over last, totaling nearly $59 billion, according to IBISWorld: 3.6

Percentage rise in electronics, such as remoteless video-game consoles and tablet computers, expected to be the strongest-growing gift category: 7

Projected percentage rise in jewelry sales, in an expected return to luxury shopping: 6.1

Source: IBISWorld.

Percentage of advertising and marketing executives who believe that the annual holiday corporate shindig is a good investment, according to a survey by The Creative Group: 52

Percentage who said their firms don't have holiday celebrations: 24

Source: The Creative Group.

Percentage of Americans who plan to spend more on leisure travel in 2011 than they did this year, according to TripAdvisor's annual Travel Trends survey: 36

Percentage who expect to spend the same amount: 42

Percentage who plan to take two or more leisure trips next year -- a slight increase on the 89 percent who said they have done so in 2010: 90

Source: TripAdvisor.

Percentage of employers who report concern that their top talent may leave their organizations when the economy improves, thus giving workers more leverage in compensation reviews, according to a CareerBuilder survey: 43

Percentage of employers who said they are willing to negotiate 2011 salary increases with current employees: 31

Percentage who plan to leave some negotiating room when extending initial offers to new employees: 51

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Percentage of Americans who have purchased a vehicle who say quality has the greatest influence on their car-buying decision, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs on behalf of CarMax: 37

Percentage who said price has the greatest influence: 28

Percentage who cited safety: 22

Source: CarMax.

Percentage of active gamers in the U.S. who spend money on in-game virtual items and micro-transactions to the point they are filing lawsuits to establish "ownership" of these virtual goods, according to a Parks Associates report: 19

As virtual items become a larger part of the gaming business economy, projected worldwide revenue in microtransaction revenues by 2015: $6 billion

Source: Parks Associates.

Percentage of adults who said Johnny Depp's performance in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy is today's best example of the swashbuckling tradition that was the trademark of stars like Errol Flynn, according to the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) poll which gauges how modern movies, stars and filmmakers stack up against Hollywood icons: 41

Ranks of Antonio Banderas in "The Mask of Zorro" and Russell Crowe in "Robin Hood": 2, 3

Source: Turner Classic Movies.

Percentage of participants with an employer-sponsored defined benefit plan who are very confident that they will receive income from their pension plan in retirement, down from 24 percent in 2008, according to a Mercer Workplace Survey: 19

Percentage who are "somewhat confident": 35

Percentage who are "not at all confident" that they will receive some pension income: 11

Source: Mercer.

Idle Thought

"You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips." -- Oliver Goldsmith, writer and physician

(Readers can contact John MacIntyre at johnmacintyre(at)bwr.eastlink.ca.)