In 2016, percentage of adults who receive paid vacation as part of their job benefits, according to research from Alamo Rent A Car: 56

Percentage of respondents receiving paid vacation who leave some of these days on the table: 41

Of those who reported having unused paid vacation days, percentage who said they left five or more vacation days unused in 2015: 40

Source: Alamo Rent A Car.

Percentage of adult Americans who drink alcohol at least a few times a year who say they have alcohol when celebrating a special occasion, according to a Harris Poll: 86

Percentage who say they imbibe when they have a really bad day: 60

Percentage who say they drink when they're stressed: 52

Source: The Harris Poll.

Percentage of chief financial officers who said new hires have one to less than three months to prove themselves, according to a Robert Half Finance & Accounting survey: 54

Percentage who expect employees to make their mark in less than a month: 9

Percentage who said three months to less than six months months: 25

Source: Robert Half Finance & Accounting.

Percentage of Americans who say they believe swearing is more commonplace today than 20 years ago, and report hearing profanity in public frequently or occasionally, according to an Ipsos poll: 75 plus

Percentage who admitted to swearing at least once a day: 33

When it comes to the "F-word," percentage of Americans who use this word on a daily basis: 25

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Increase in the average cost of a wedding in the past five years, with couples spending an average of $32,641 in 2015, according to the results of a The Knot survey: $5,500

Ranks of reception venue ($1,950 increase), ceremony site ($652) and reception band ($545) on the list of categories most responsible for driving up the cost: 1, 2, 3

Average spent to tie the knot in Manhattan, the most expensive place to get married: $82,299

Average spent to tie the knot in Alaska, the least expensive place to get married: $17,361

Source: The Knot.

Percentage of North American employees who say they have the right tools and technology they need to be more productive, according to Mercer's 2016 Global Talent Trends Study: 73

Percentage of North American employees who say they have creative training available: 69

Source: Mercer.

Number of people killed by terrorism in 2014, compared to 18,111 in 2013, the largest increase ever recorded, according to the third edition of the Global Terrorism Index: 32,658

Percentage of all global terrorism fatalities in 2014 for which Boko Haram and ISIL were jointly responsible: 51

Percentage of all deaths that occurred in just five countries -- Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria: 78

Global economic cost of terrorism in 2015, an all-time high: $52.9 billion

Source: Institute for Economics & Peace.

Percentage of women losing sleep over money problems, according to a recent CreditCards.com report: 68

Percentage of men losing sleep over money problems: 56

Percentage of adults losing sleep worrying about saving enough money for retirement: 39

Source: creditcards.com.

Estimated number of hours that administrative assistants save their managers a day, according to a survey by OfficeTeam: 3

Source: Robert Half.

If money were no object, percentage of respondents to a Mother's Day CreditDonkey.com survey who said they would send Mom on vacation: 56

Percentage who would buy her a new house: 27

Percentage who would buy her a car: 13

Alas, for all the mothers out there, the average amount of money respondents plan to spend this Mother's Day: $61.56

Source: CreditDonkey.com.

Idle Thought

"Conformity may give you a quiet life; it may even bring you to a University Chair. But all change in history, all advance, comes from the nonconformists. If there had been no troublemakers, no dissenters, we should still be living in caves." -- A.J.P. Taylor, historian

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

Percentage of American adults who received no instruction on investing -- not from their parents, their school or from anyone else -- according to a survey from RBC Wealth Management-U.S. and City National Bank: 35

Percentage who said they simply taught themselves: 39

Percentage of Americans of all ages who say that financial literacy should be taught in schools: 87

Source: RBC Financial.

Number of shell companies that were set up by a single law firm, Mossack Fonseca, according to an article by Deborah Hardoon, Oxfam's deputy head of research: 200,000 plus

At the peak of its activity in 2005, number of companies that Mossack Fonseca incorporated -- one company every 10 minutes: 13,000

Number of banks, law firms, company incorporators and other middlemen -- almost 2,000 from the United Kingdom, 1,200 from Switzerland and more than 400 in Brazil -- that the "Panama Papers" show that Mossack Fonseca worked with: 14,000 plus

Source: Oxfam.

Percentage of workers who would consider relocating for a job, according to a Robert Half Relocation Survey: 67

Percentage who believe a move would improve their career prospects: 37

Ranks of a higher salary, a lower cost of living, career growth prospects with the new company/city, and being closer to family and friends on the list of the most important factors in deciding to relocate for a job: 1, 2, 3, 4

Source: Robert Half.

Cost of a gallon of regular gas in 1967, according to the U.S. Census Bureau: 33 cents ($2.13 in 2015 dollars)

Cost of a gallon of regular gas in 2016: $1.86

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Total debt as a percentage of median income in Hawaii, two times higher than in Mississippi, the state with the lowest, according to WalletHub research: 286.51 percent

Foreclosure rate in New Jersey, 14 times higher than in Alaska, the state with the lowest, 0.30 percent: 4.30 percent

Housing expenses as a percentage of median home price in Michigan, three times higher than in Hawaii, the state with the lowest, 1.76 percent: 5.02 percent

Percentage of the population spending more than they make in Hawaii and Nevada, two times higher than in Maryland, the state with the lowest at 14 percent: 23

Source: WalletHub.

Percentage of U.S. consumers who now binge watch an average of five television series episodes at a time, according to Deloitte's 10th Digital Democracy survey: 70

Percentage who binge on a weekly basis: 31

Source: The Harris Poll.

Average cost of tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities today, according to research by Convergex: $9,410

Average cost of tuition and fees if attending a private, nonprofit four-year college or university: $32,405

Source: Convergex.

Percentage of business travelers who generally feel positive about traveling, according to findings released from Booking.com: 39

Among international business travelers, percentage who feel stressed at some point on their journey due to the logistics of their travels: 93

Ranks of missing a flight/train, language barriers and the possibility that luggage will be lost on the list of the top causes of anxiety for American business travelers: 1, 2, 3

Source: Booking.com.

Percentage of people who say they clean their homes every day, according to the Nielsen Global Home-Care survey: 31

Percentage of people who say they do laundry every day: 31

Percentage who say women do the majority of cleaning: 44

Percentage who say housecleaning is a shared responsibility between women and men: 28

Source: Nielsen Online.

Percentage of employers who say they plan to hire recent college graduates this year, up from 65 percent last year and the highest outlook since 2007, according to a CareerBuilder survey: 67

Percentage who plan to offer recent college graduates higher pay than last year: 37

Source: CareerBuilder.com.

Idle Thought

"The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty and truth." -- Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

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

Percentage of college-educated workers who believe knowledge and skills in their field become quickly outdated, according to a survey for Instructure: 75

Percentage of the study's respondents who feel their employers aid them 100 percent in their career development: 12

Percentage of people who agreed that changes in their professional fields required them to update their knowledge and develop new professional skills: 90

Source: Instructure.

Percentage of lawyers who said "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is the greatest novel ever written about the legal field, according to a survey by Robert Half Legal: 46

Ranks of "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens, "The Firm" by John Grisham and "Presumed Innocent" by Scott Turow on the list of top legal page-turners of all time: 2, 3, 4

Source: Robert Half Legal.

Projected number of mobile phones that will be sold in 2016, according to CCS Insight's global mobile phone forecast: 2.04 billion

Projected number of mobile phones that will be in use by 2020, with over three-quarters being smartphones: 7 billion

Projected number of mobile phones to be sold in China in 2016, the world's biggest market: 420 million

Source: CCS Insight.

Ranks of New Hampshire, South Dakota, Colorado, Virginia and Florida on the list of the states with the best taxpayer return on investment in 2016, according to WalletHub's analysis of the U.S. tax landscape: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Ranks of North Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, New York and Delaware on the list of the states with the worst taxpayer return on investment in 2016: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Source: WalletHub.

Amount that developing and emerging economies lost in illicit financial flows from 2004 through 2013, according to a report from Global Financial Integrity: $7.8 trillion

Amount that flowed out of these economies in 2013 from tax evasion, crime, corruption and other illicit activity: $1.1 trillion

Percentage of illicit funds that end up in developed countries: 55

Percentage that ends up in offshore financial centers: 45

Source: Global Financial Integrity.

Percentage of U.S. workers who feel they are overweight, according to a CareerBuilder survey: 55

Percentage who said they are "too tired from work to exercise": 45

Percentage of Americans who are in debt, according to a survey conducted by Fifth Third Bank: 70

Percentage of those in debt who have no plan to pay it off: 30

Percentage of American adults who cited financial independence as a goal in their lives: 82

Source: Fifth Third Bank.

Ranks of Amazon, RCA, Apple, Verizon, LG and Samsung on the list of the most reliable brands, based on 60,000 annual service call requests to the 1-800-RESCUE-PC hot line: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Source: RESCUECOM.

Percentage of Americans who see being a doctor as a prestigious occupation, according to a Harris Poll: 90

Percentage of adults who would encourage a child to become a doctor: 90

Source: The Harris Poll.

Percentage of Americans who see this year's presidential primary race as more uncivil than civil, according to a poll by Weber Shandwick, Powell Tate and KRC Research: 61

Percentage of adult Americans who say a political candidate's tone or level of civility is somewhat important: 84

Percentage who say incivility in government prevents action on important issues here at home: 77

Source: KRC Research.

Idle Thought

"I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer." -- Douglas Adams, author (1952-2001)

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