Percentage of chief financial officers who said non-business-related Internet use, including social media, is the greatest time-waster at work, according to a survey from Robert Half Management Resources: 32

Percentage of CFOs who said that chatting with co-workers is the greatest time waster: 27

Percentage who said meetings drain significant time, with the data suggesting this issue is most pronounced at larger firms (more than 1,000 employees), where meetings received 19 percent of the response: 11

Source: Robert Half Technology.

In 2013, percentage of parents who strongly agreed that college was an investment in their child's future, the highest in the six years since the study began, according to a national study from Sallie Mae and Ipsos: 85

Percentage of families that borrow to pay for college: 40

In all, percentage of families that eliminated colleges based on cost at some stage during the research and admissions process, up from 58 percent in 2008: 67

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Percentage of respondents who say a good marriage, someone to come home to at night and a good family life lead to the most happiness over a lifetime, according to a CreditDonkey.com survey: 72

Percentage of respondents who say that prioritizing family and personal time over higher earnings leads to the most happiness in the long run: 38

Source: CreditDonkey.com.

Percentage of the adult smokers who plan to quit to save money, according to a survey conducted for national public health nonprofit Legacy: 37

Percentage who want to quit because they don't want their clothes and hair to smell: 32

Year of the landmark U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Smoking and Health: 1964

Source: Legacy.

Ratio of single men in their 20s to single women in their 20s, according to a Retail Advertising and Marketing Association survey: 1.2 to 1

Ratio of single men 65 or older to single women 65 or older: 0.33 to 1

Source: NRF.

When asked in early January, percentage of Americans who were looking forward to this year's Super Bowl, according to Pew Research Daily Numbers: 55

When asked, percentage of Americans who said they looked forward to the Winter Olympics: 58

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

Percentage of all public and private schools that have a uniform policy, according to research by the U.S. Department of Education, the University of Florida and other groups: 23

Annual school uniform sales: $1.3 billion

Average annual cost to parents for school uniforms: $249

Source: Statistic Brain.

Percentage of adults with children younger than 18 who say their family eats dinner together at home six or seven nights a week, according to a Gallup poll: 53

From 2003 to 2008, average number of times per week that U.S. adults reported they eat dinner out at a restaurant, according to Gallup estimates: 1.2 to 1.4

Source: Gallup.

Percentage of Americans 68 and older who say it would be more difficult to start dating than to stay single, according to a Marist Poll sponsored by Home Instead Senior Care: 66

Regardless of age, percentage of Americans who said that if they were to start dating at age 65, the most stressful decision when getting ready for a first date would be what to talk about: 35

Percentage who said where to go: 25

Source: Home Instead Senior Care.

Number of years ago when workplace settings did not include telephones, typewriters, calculators, digital computers and even women, according to Frost & Sullivan's new analysis, Beyond SOHO: The Future of Work: 100

Estimated number of years in the future when today's average work environment will be as foreign to most people as today's work environment would be to someone living a century ago: 10

Source: Frost & Sullivan.

Idle Thought

"Life is like a 10-speed bike: Most of us have gears we never use." -- Charles Schulz, cartoonist

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

Though a person is more likely to hit a deer in Hawaii or get struck by an asteroid, percentage of Americans who dream about winning the lottery a least a few times per year, according to research from YouGov Omnibus: 58

Percentage of Americans who claim to think about it on a daily basis: 10

Source: YouGov.

Percentage of global citizens who appear to be generally happy -- either very happy (20 percent) or somewhat happy (55 percent), according to a poll by global research company Ipsos: 75

Ranks of Indonesia (55 percent), India (41 percent), Mexico (38 percent), Brazil (33 percent), South Africa (26 percent) and the U.S. (26 percent) on the list of countries with the highest percentage of people who say they are very happy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (tie)

Ranks of South Korea (6 percent), Hungary (8 percent), Italy (9 percent), China (10 percent), France (11 percent), Germany (11 percent) and Russia (11 percent) on the list of countries with the lowest percentage of people who say they are very happy: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (three-way tie)

Source: Ipsos Global Public Affairs.

Estimated number of African-Americans living in the U.S. (counting single race or in combination with others), according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 44 million

By 2060, projected African-American population -- 18.4 percent of the U.S. population: 77 million

Estimated number of blacks in New York, the largest number of any state: 3.5 million

Rank of Mississippi at 38 percent on the list of states with the highest percentage of blacks: 1

Source: Census Bureau.

Percentage of employed workers who said it's been at least five years since they last looked for a new job, according to an Accountemps survey: 48

Of those, percentage who haven't conducted a job search in more than a decade: 30

Percentage of employees polled who said they plan to look for a new job in the next 12 months: 20

Source: Accountemps.

Percentage of male respondents who said they would have sex with an adult-film star, compared to only 10 percent of the female respondents, according to a survey by AdamAndEve.com: 40

Source: Adam & Eve.

Rank of the Labrador retriever on the most popular dog list for the 23rd consecutive year, the longest reign at the top in the history of the American Kennel Club: 1

Ranks of the German shepherd, golden retriever and beagle on the list: 2, 3, 4

Source: American Kennel Club.

Percentage of small and medium-sized business owners who say they don't have the right skills to use data effectively (though recognizing the importance of collecting, analyzing and using business-related data), according to a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit: 22

Percentage of respondents who say they cannot get data to pay off for them due to lack of skills: 30

Percentage who say they can't get data into the right hands: 23

Source: WebiMax.

Average monthly apartment rental cost in the U.S. in 2013, up 3.2 percent for all of 2013, according to Reis Inc.: $1,083

Percentage of former homeowners who said they prefer renting: 46

Source: Apartments.com.

Cost per month of a $4 cappuccino on the way to work, according to CreditDonkey: $88

Amount that can be saved per year by bringing your own thermos filled with coffee: $900

Source: CreditDonkey.com.

Ranks of Budweiser's "Puppy Love," David Beckham for H&M and Ellen Degeneres as Goldilocks for Beats Music on the list of the top Super Bowl commercials, according to Lambert, Edwards & Associates: 1, 2, 3

Source: Lambert, Edwards & Associates.

Idle Thought

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" -- Abraham Lincoln

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

Average annual Valentine's Day spending, according to the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association survey: $13.19 million

Number of Valentine's Day cards exchanged annually: 180 million

Average number of roses produced for Valentine's Day: 196 million

Percentage of women who would end their relationship if they didn't get something for Valentine's Day: 53

Source: NRF.

Estimated number of firms in the U.S. making chocolate products, an industry worth $13.5 billion a year, according to the Census Bureau: 1,200

Estimated number of candy stores across the nation selling all forms of confections: 3,300

Average number of pounds of candy consumed by each American annually: 25

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Percentage of Americans who have reviewed a product or service who claim that they never bought, used or even tried the product, according to YouGov research: 21

Of these, percentage who said they did so because they "just felt like it": 32

Source: YouGov.

Percentage of American football fans (meaning they and/or their spouse/partner follow professional football) who reported that they gained weight during this football season, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Nutrisystem: 25

Average gain among those that have gained weight this football season: 10 pounds

Percentage who admitted they had gained 20 or more pounds: 16

Source: Harris Interactive.

Percentage of Americans who had committed to a New Year's resolution who have already given up, according to the Sears and Kmart's New Year's resolution survey findings: 53

Ranks of exercising, eating healthier and losing weight on the list of the top broken resolutions: 1, 2, 3

Percentage of Americans who say they easily gave up on their New Year's resolutions because they are too hard to maintain on their own: 69

Source: Sears Holdings.

Percentage of Americans who agree that soup warms America's heart and should be the official meal of winter, according to The Snapware brand sponsored survey: 86

Ranks of a hot cup of soup, cuddling, putting on favorite PJs and taking a warm bath on the list of the best ways to warm up during the winter: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: Zeno Group.

Number of times more frequently that women tweet about Valentine's Day than men and are more positive about the holiday, according to NM Incite (a Nielsen/McKinsey company): 2

Percentage of men's tweets about Valentine's Day that are positive: 10

Source: Nielsen Analytics.

Number of job changes over a 10-year period it would take for a professional to be viewed as a job hopper, according to a survey of HR managers by Robert Half: 5

Source: Robert Half.

Percentage of Americans who will be spending Valentine's Day with a movie, according to a survey by Redbox: 61

Percentage of respondents who would prefer a homemade meal on Valentine's Day: 37.7

Source: Redbox.

Ranks of restaurant gift cards, jewelry, clothing/apparel, flowers, chocolate and perfume/cologne on the list of most preferred gifts chosen by American adults for Valentine's Day, according to a survey by the National Restaurant Association: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Source: National Restaurant Association.

Idle Thought

"Everyone discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to understand, when it is simply necessary to love." -- Claude Monet, painter

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