Average student athlete's annual compensation in tuition, room and board, according to WalletHub's March Madness by the Numbers study: $120,000

Average salary of big-time college coaches: $5 million plus

Amount paid by CBS/Turner to acquire the TV rights for the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament from 2011 to 2024: $10.8 billion

Estimated amount wagered on the 2015 tournament: $9 billion

Estimated amount illegally gambled on the 2015 tournament: $7 billion

Source: WalletHub.

Percentage of CFOs who say they are much more open to negotiating non-monetary perks compared to one year ago, according to a survey by Robert Half: 9

Percentage of workers who want telecommuting options: 23

Percentage of workers who want non-traditional work hours: 21

Source: Accountemps.

Percentage of Americans who say choosing locally grown/sourced items is an important factor in their purchasing decisions, according to a Harris poll: 50

Ranks of sugar content, fat content, sodium content and calorie count on the list of important considerations in choosing one item over another: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: The Harris Poll.

Median sale price of a new single-family home in 1967, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: $22,700

Price in 2016: $282,800

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.

Number of college students in the United States, according to IBIS World: 20 million

Amount of spring break spending in 2016, according to IBIS World: $1.7 billion

Percentage of students who book hotel rooms for $100 or less, according to Priceline: 43

Source: IBIS World.

Percentage of American workers who say they have virtually no money in savings and investments, according to EBRI's Retirement Confidence Survey: 57

Percentage of workers who report savings of $25,000 to $49,999: 9

Percentage who report savings of $100,000 to $249,999: 10

Percentage of workers who have savings of $250,000 or more: 14

Source: EBRI.

Percentage of human resource managers who said they would consider rehiring a former employee who left their company on good terms, according to a new survey from Accountemps: 77

Percentage of workers who said it is very likely they would ever apply for a job at a previous employer: 17

Percentage of workers who said the primary reason they would not apply for a job at a previous employer is because they didn't like management: 23

Percentage who said they didn't like the corporate structure: 14

Source: Robert Half.

Percentage of Americans who deem driving while extremely over the legal limit for alcohol use is very dangerous, according to an Ipsos Survey: 93

Percentage of Americans who classify taking a selfie while driving as being unsafe: 92

Percentage who say the same of texting while driving: 91

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Percentage of global citizens who agree that law-enforcement agencies should have a right to access the content of their citizens' online communications for valid national security reasons, according to a poll undertaken by the Centre for International Governance Innovation and conducted across 24 countries: 70

Percentage of respondents, including 60 percent of Americans, who think that companies should not develop technologies that prevent law enforcement from accessing the content of a user's online data: 63

Source: Centre for International Governance Innovation.

Percentage of U.S. broadband households that now own a smartphone, according to Parks Associates mobile research: 86

Year that U.S. carriers started to do away with the once-familiar two-year contract, which tied consumers to a two-year phone upgrade cycle: 2012

By the third quarter of 2015, percentage of mobile consumers who had a contract, down from almost 70 percent at the end of 2011: 51

Source: Parks Associates.

Idle Thought

"The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge." -- Bertrand Russell

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

Average amount that Americans spend annually on food (about $4,000 spent at the grocery store and about $2,600 on eating out): $6,600

Average amount that Americans spend on clothing each year: $1,600

Average amount the average person in the United States spends on health care -- insurance costs accounting for about 61 percent of total health care spending: $3,600

Average transportation expenditure, including gas, insurance and maintenance: $9,000

Source: CreditDonkey.com.

Percentage of adults whose parents read to them every day who are likely to report very strong relationships with their parents, according to a Harris Poll: 74

Among adults whose parents read to them every day, percentage who strongly agree that they love to read: 72

Among adults who were read to daily or at least weekly, percentage who are significantly more likely to report six-figure incomes than those who were read to less than once a week or never: 31, 29 respectively

Source: The Harris Poll.

Percentage of working-age adults who see good opportunities around them for starting a business, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor with sponsors Babson College, Universidad Del Desarrollo, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak and Tecnologico de Monterrey: 42

Percentage who feel constrained due to fear of failure: 33

Percentage of the working-age population, on average, who feel they have the ability to start a business: 50

Source: Babson College.

Year in which more electronic mail was being sent than postal mail in the United States, according to a report by the Radicati Group on global email use: 1996

In 2015, the number of emails sent every day: 2 billion

Number of registered email accounts: 4.35 billion

Source: Radicati Group.

Once they decide to stay at home for the evening, percentage of people who say they negotiate with their spouse, partner or significant other when deciding which shows to watch, according to an Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Netflix: 71

Percentage of respondents who say shows are a focal point of a relationship because they are more fun when watched together: 67

Source: Ipsos Reid Public Affairs.

Rank of coral/pink, emerald green and goldenrod/yellow on the list of the most popular colors for hard-boiled Easter eggs, according to research from The American Egg Board: 1, 2, 3

Percentage of Americans who use store-bought dye (or decorating kits) to decorate their eggs: 68

Ranks of egg hunts, decorating eggs and Easter brunch on the list of favorite Easter activities: 1, 2, 3

Source: American Egg Board.

Percentage of people who have elected to extend a vacation because of a romance begun while travelling, according to an Expedia survey: 5

Percentage who say they would consider extending that relationship once the vacation concludes: 23

Percentage who said they would not: 32

Source: Expedia.

Percentage of Americans who have made impulse purchases, according to a CreditCards.com report: 84

Percentage of people who have ever made an impulse purchase who said the most common recipient was themselves: 47

Percentage who said the most common recipient was a child: 21

Source: CreditCards.com.

Rank of "The Sound of Music" and "Titanic" on the list of the most iconic award-winning movies that showcased the most beautiful smiles, according to a survey done on behalf of the makers of the Invisalign: 1 (tied at 17 percent)

Percentage of Americans who would rather have their own smile than that of any actor or actress nominated in 2016 (47 percent of men and 52 percent of women): 49.5

Source: Invisalign.

Percentage of people who plan to look for a new job in 2016, according to a survey by SKOUT: 55

Percentage who say they have gotten a job because of a friend: 53

Source: Skout.

Idle Thought

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." -- Mark Twain

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

Percentage of managers who feel that March Madness activities in the workplace have a positive impact on employee morale, according to a survey by OfficeTeam: 32

Percentage of managers who feel that March Madness activities have a positive impact on employee productivity: 22

Percentage of employees who are distracted from work by major sporting events: 38

Source: OfficeTeam.

Percentage of American mobile phone owners who have broken or lost a mobile phone -- in fact, on average, they've broken or lost two -- according to a new study by Verizon and KRC Research: 49

Percentage who have sent their phone through the wash: 42

Percentage who have found a pet chewing it: 20

Source: Verizon Information Services.

Percentage of employed millennials who reported feeling a sense of shame for taking or planning a vacation compared to those 35 or older (41 percent), according to research from Alamo Rent A Car: 59

Percentage of all workers who said they felt a sense of shame or guilt at their workplace for taking time off to go on a vacation: 47

Source: Alamo Rent A Car.

Percentage of credit card holders who asked for a late fee waiver and had their request granted, according to a report from CreditCards.com: 89

Percentage who requested a lower interest rate and received one: 78

Number of cardholders (out of five) who made such a request: 1

Source: Creditcards.com.

Percentage of Americans who plan to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, according to WalletHub: 52.3

Estimated amount of money that will be spent to celebrate St. Patrick's Day: $4.6 billion

Estimated number of pints of Guinness that will be consumed worldwide: 13 million

Estimated number of U.S. residents who claim Irish ancestry, seven times the population of Ireland: 33.3 million

Source: WalletHub.

Percentage of employers who say they have no problem with the occasional late arrival as long as it doesn't become a pattern, according to a survey by CareerBuilder: 33

Percentage of employers who say they don't need employees to be punctual if they can still get their work done: 16

Ranks of traffic, oversleeping, bad weather and lack of sleep on the list reasons why employees are late for work: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Percentage of consumers who have had a bad experience with a product who told their friends, family or colleagues about it, according to an Ipsos survey: 52

Percentage who indicated they have shared a good experience with others: 56

Percentage of consumers who had a bad experience who shared it on a social media platform: 12

Percentage of those who had a good experience who did the same: 10

Source: Ipsos.

Rank of pepperoni on Americans' list of favorite pizza toppings, according to a Harris poll: 1

Rank of anchovies, on Americans' list of least-favorite pizza toppings: 1

Ranks of sausage, mushrooms, cheese/plain and onions on the list of favorite toppings: 2, 3, 4, 5

Ranks of thin crust, regular crust and deep dish on the list of favorite crust styles: 1, 2, 3

Source: The Harris Poll.

Today, approximate number of egg-producing companies with 1 million-plus hens, representing about 85 percent of total U.S. production, according to the American Egg Board: 62

Number of companies with greater than 5 million hens: 16

As of September 2015, total percentage of hens that are cage-free, totaling 23.6 million hens: 8.6

Of this figure, percentage (11.4 million hens) that were USDA Organic: 4.2

Source: American Egg Board.

Amount the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States collectively paid in state and local taxes, according to a 50-state study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy: $11.64 billion

Source: Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Idle Thought

"The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped." -- Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher

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