Percentage of Americans who are living paycheck-to-paycheck, according to an Allstate Insurance Co. poll: 41

Percentage of respondents who say they don't earn enough each month to pay for essentials: 8

Source: Allstate Insurance Co.

Percentage of U.S. adults who tip and use coupons or daily deals who then tip on the discounted total, resulting in a lower payday for those performing the services, according to a survey conducted on behalf of CouponCabin: 26

Percentage of U.S. adults who said they don't leave a tip when they receive less than average service: 30

Source: CouponCabin.

Number of years that banks had operated in America before someone tried to make an unauthorized withdrawal, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 50

Year that Edward Smith committed the first bank robbery in the U.S., hitting the City Bank on New York's Wall Street: 1831

Amount of money he got away with, a huge sum at the time: $245,000

After being caught and convicted, number of years he spent in New York's Sing Sing Prison: 5

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of commuters who said they know sending a text or email while driving isn't safe, according to a poll sponsored by AT&T: 98

Percentage of commuters who self-reported texting while driving: 49

Source: AT&T.

Percentage of hiring managers and human resource professionals who said they are hiring more employees with college degrees for positions that were historically held by high school graduates, according to a study by CareerBuilder: 32

Ranks of financial services, health care and manufacturing on the list of industries where this trend is most prevalent: 1, 2, 3

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Due to escalating prices for beef and pork, percentage of consumers who want restaurants to offer a greater variety of chicken entrees, according to research by Technomic: 55

Percentage of consumers who want to see more options for turkey entrees on the menu: 40

Percentage rise in breakfast entrees featuring chicken on the Top 500 full-service restaurant menus since 2011: 16

Source: Technomic.

Percentage of parents who believe they hold the leading influence over their kids' decisions not to drink at all or to not drink on occasion, according to a survey conducted by Toluna for the Century Council: 89

Ranks of friends/peers, brothers/sisters and teachers on the list of those adults who have the most influence on their decision: 2, 3, 4

Source: Century Council.

Percentage of vigorous exercisers who say they rarely or never have symptoms commonly associated with insomnia, including waking up too early and not being able to get back to sleep and difficulty falling asleep, according to the results of the National Sleep Foundation's 2013 Sleep in America poll: 70

Percentage of non-exercisers who say they woke up during the night: 50

Percentage who say they had difficulty falling asleep every night or almost every night: 24

Source: National Sleep Foundation.

Percentage of respondents who cited booking early as the highest contributor to overall travel savings, according to a survey by ShopAtHome.com that revealed the shopping mistakes of even the savviest couponers and deal hunters: 48

Percentage of respondents who correctly cited booking packages as the highest contributor to overall travel savings: 39

Source: ShopAtHome.com.

Percentage of U.K. and U.S. consumers who say that they only buy from businesses that make it easy for them to deal with, according to research from BT and Avaya: 78

Percentage who believe convenience is more important than price: 33

Percentage of consumers who believe customer loyalty is a thing of the past: 50

Source: BT.

Idle Thought

"It is not so much our friends' help that helps us as the confident knowledge that they will help us." -- Epicurus, philosopher

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

On average, total number of days Americans receive in paid time off (10) plus additional national holidays, such as Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day (10), according to a survey by Hotels.com: 20

Of the 30 nations surveyed, global average of annual leave and public entitlement: 28 days

Source: Hotels.com.

If giving up sex for a month got their bills paid, percentage of Americans who would skip time between the sheets -- up from 18.5 percent last year, according to a national consumer survey conducted by independent market research firm Toluna, on behalf of BillFloat Inc.: 40.5

Source: BillFloat.

Percentage of adults 18 or older who are married today, compared to 72 percent in 1960, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of long-term data on time use: 51

Percentage of working moms who say they find it very or somewhat difficult to juggle the responsibilities of work and family life: 56

Among mothers with children under age 18, percentage who say they would prefer to work full-time, up from 20 percent in 2007: 32

Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Percentage of private companies that have taken substantial cost-containment measures over the past several years, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' Trendsetter Barometer survey: 84

Percentage of those companies that have seen sustainable savings as a result: 89

Percentage of the companies that took cost-containment measures during the past one to four years that say they applied the savings to keeping their businesses afloat: 70

Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Due to 2013 payroll tax changes, average amount less per month that working Americans are taking home than they did in 2012, according to a survey: $130

Percentage of working Americans who have cut back most on going out to bars and restaurants due to these tax increases: 20

Source: Accounting Principals.

Percentage of men who say they prefer to make a relationship official after a couple of good dates, according to a Zoosk and Glamour.com survey: 42

Percentage of women who prefer to wait at least a few months: 35

Source: Glamour Magazine.

In spite of understanding the problems they face if their mobile device or data is lost, percentage of consumers who reported requiring a passcode or other authentication methods to access their device, according to data from NQ Mobile: 52

Percentage of respondents who reported either losing their device or having one stolen in the past: 25

Of these devices, percentage that were unprotected: 40

Source: NQ Mobile Inc.

Energy consumption in the U.S. manufacturing sector in 2010, down almost 10 percent from the 21,098 trillion British thermal units consumed in 2006, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 19,061 million Btu

Percentage drop in the consumption of residual fuel oil in the U.S. manufacturing sector in 2010: 46

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of brides who say online resources such as Pinterest, Facebook and blogs are the best places to find wedding inspiration, according to a survey by David's Bridal: 59

Percentage of brides who use technology during their fittings, from texting pictures to family to posting videos on a social media site: 68

Source: David's Bridal Inc.

Percentage of consumers who follow a brand on its social networking page who feel an acknowledgment from the brand to the comments or links they post makes them feel more connected to that brand, according to a survey by Marketing Ipsos Open Thinking Exchange: 28

Source: Ipsos Open Thinking.

Idle Thought

"It is impossible to live pleasurably without living prudently, honorably and justly; or to live prudently, honorably and justly, without living pleasurably." -- Epicurus, philosopher

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

Percentage of global executives who say talent management is the single most important corporate strategy for their company to implement -- and they indicate it is more critical than marketing (26 percent), financial management (21 percent) and capitalization (7 percent), according to results from a survey of global executives by Korn/Ferry International: 45

Percentage who say they do not believe their company has the right management team over the next 12 months: 43

Percentage who do not believe they will have the right team five years from now: 56

Source: Korn/Ferry International.

In 2011, percentage of U.S. households that hold some form of debt, down from 74 percent in 2000, according to statistics released by the U.S. Census Bureau: 69

In 2011, median amount of household debt, up from $50,971 (in 2011 constant dollars): $70,000

Source: Census Bureau - Bernstein.

Percentage of single baby boomers who would prefer to date someone about their same age, according to Del Webb Baby Boomer Survey data: 44

Percentage of men who want to date a younger or "much younger" woman, compared to 22 percent of women who say they would prefer to date a younger or much younger man: 63

Source: Del Webb.

Percentage of Americans who find gathering the required paperwork the most frustrating part of filing their taxes, according to a survey conducted for RetailMeNot: 30

Percentage who find the most frustrating part is waiting to get a refund: 20

Percentage who say that finding they owe additional taxes most frustrating: 19

Source: RetailMeNot.com.

Percentage of small-business owners who indicate that a crashed computer is more disruptive than a sick employee, according to a survey by Brother International Corp.: 75

Percentage who noted that a tech malfunction has negatively impacted their business through a missed deadline or business opportunity: 77

Source: Brother International.

Percentage of Americans who confess to having passed off frozen meals as their own culinary creation, according to a survey by Nestle USA: 25

Percentage who admitted to having "accidentally" stolen a frozen meal from the freezer at work: 14

Percentage of respondents who said they've tried to create their own version of a favorite frozen meal: 31

Source: Nestle Confections & Snacks.

Percentage of Americans who agree that "a product needs to be manufactured within the U.S. for me to consider it 'American,'" putting domestic manufacture ahead of the importance of being from a U.S. company, being made from American parts, or being American designed, according to a Harris Poll: 75

Percentage of U.S. adults who agree that "a product needs to be made by a U.S. company for me to consider it 'American'": 52

Source: Harris Interactive.

During the last recession, percentage better on average that residential property values performed if they were located near public transportation with high-frequency service, according to a study released by the American Public Transportation Association and the National Association of Realtors: 42

Number of times more jobs (per square mile) there are in neighborhoods with high-frequency public transportation compared to other areas in a given region: 5

Source: American Public Transportation Association.

Percentage of the world's adults who say they would like to leave their country and move somewhere else permanently, according to a Gallup poll: 13 (or about 630 million people)

Number of people for whom that somewhere else would be the U.S. -- the No. 1 desired destination for potential migrants: 138 million

Source: Gallup Organization.

Number of Christians there are around the world, up from about 600 million in 1910, according to a study by the Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life: 2.18 billion

Because the world's overall population also has risen rapidly, from an estimated 1.8 billion in 1910 to 6.9 billion in 2010, percentage of the world's population who are Christian today, down from 35 percent a century ago: 32

Percentage of the world's Christians who live in Europe and the Americas, down from 93 percent in 1910: 63

Source: Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Idle Thought

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning." -- Bill Gates

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