Percentage of Poles who would support a law allowing doctors to apply medication that would "shorten the sufferings of the incurably ill": 51 percent.

Percentage of those against: 36 percent.

Percentage of Poles who approve of euthanasia: approximately 36 percent.

Percentage of Poles who disapprove of euthanasia: approximately 51 percent.

Source: Center for the Study of Public Opinion (CBOS) poll, as reported by Donosy, 27 August 1999.

Percentage fall in the number of people aged between 25 and 50 by 2020: Britain, 8 percent; Germany, 11 percent; Italy, 19 percent.

Percentage increase in the number of people aged between 25 and 50 in the United States by 2020: three percent.

Source: Economist, 4-10 September 1999. Notable quote from Paul Wallace, author of a book on global ageing: "Populations in Europe are poised to plunge on a scale not seen since the Black Death in 1348."

Number of ethnic Chinese living in the Russian Federation in 1999: 2.5 million.

Source: Russian Statistics Committee, as reported by Michael Waller, Russia Reform Monitor, no. 658 (5 July 1999).

Percentage of St. Petersburg inhabitants who live in communal apartments: 40 percent.

Source: Marina Koreneva of Agence France-Presse (St. Petersburg), 24 November 1999.

The share of American workers in physically demanding jobs in 1950 and 1996, respectively: 20.3 percent and 7.5 percent.

Source: Eugene Steuerle of the Urban Institute in the United States, as reported by Economist, 4-10 September 1999.

Projected largest industries in 2020: 1. tourism 2. oil industry.

Projected number of tourists in 2020: 1.6 billion people, or triple the present number.

Source: Ben Partridge, "Global Warming Could Threaten Tourism," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 3 September 1999.

Percentage of American men aged between 60 and 64 that are still in the labor force: 50 percent.

Percentage of German, French, and Dutch men between 60 and 64 that are still in the labor force: 33 percent, 19 percent, and 19 percent, respectively.

Source: Economist, 4-10 September 1999.

Place of Russia among America's trading partners in 1999: #30, ahead of the Dominican Republic (#31) and behind Colombia (#29).

Source: Michael Dobbs and Paul Blustein, "Lost Illusions," Washington Post, 12 September 1999.

Value of the Russian ruble vs. American dollar in 1876: $1=18 rubles.

Source: Elizabeth (Anver) Denning, "Immigration from Russia to America" <http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/5138/immigrant.htm>.

Value of the Russian ruble vs. American dollar on 1 December 1999: $1=26.745 rubles.

Source: Daily exchange rate quotes, <http://www.russiatoday.com>.

Percentage drop in foreign car sales in Russia during the first six months of 1999: 90 percent.

Source: Associated Press (Moscow), 28 July 1999.

Percentage of the Russian Federation's population living in poverty: 40 percent.

Unemployment and poverty rate in the province of Dagestan before the 1999–2000 Russian-Chechen war: 80 percent.

Source: Institute for Socioeconomic Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as reported by Segodnia, 30 August 1999.

Polish trade deficit in the first half of 1999: $8.4 billion, or 3.4 percent less than in the same period last year.

Polish exports in the first half of 1999: $12.9 billion, or 8.1 percent less than in the same period last year.

Polish imports: $21.3 billion, or 6.6 percent less than last year.

Polish export markets: Germany (36.9 percent of exports), Italy (seven percent), the Netherlands (5.3 percent), France (5.1 percent).

Percentage of Polish exports that go to the European Union: 71.9 percent.

Polish imports from EU: 66 percent of the total.

Source: Polish Statistics Office, as reported by AFP, 20 August 1999.

The ratio of stock market values to gross domestic product in the United States in 1999: 1.3, or the higest in history.

An international median ratio of same: 0.5.

Source: Scott Burns in Houston Chronicle, 27 September 1999.

Percentage of Germany's gross domestic product produced by the "shadow economy": 15 percent.

Source: Josef Joffe, "'Italianization' of Continent in Europe's best interest," Houston Chronicle, 14 October 1999.

Total foreign investment in Poland since 1989: $35.5 billion (including $10.1 billion in 1998 and $4.9 billion in the first half of 1999).

Source: Pierre-Antoine Donnet of AFP, 10 September 1999.

More economic data for July 1999 in Poland: unemployment, 11.7 percent; year-on-year inflation, 6.3 percent; average salary in state-owned enterprises, 1852 Zl (an increase of 9.9 percent since July 1998).

Source: Polish Statistics Office, as reported by Donosy, 23 August 1999, and AFP (Warsaw), 16 August 1999.

Average official salary in Russia in 1999: 1,700 rubles a month.

Source: Moskovskii Komsomolets, 17 November 1999, as reported by AFP on the same day.

Percentage of the Polish life-insurance market held by Panstwowy Zaklad Ubezpieczen (PZU, a former state insurance monopoly): 65 percent.

Percentage of the market for insurance of goods and property held by PZU: 63 percent.

Estimated value of PZU to potential purchasers: $1.5 billion.

Date by which the Polish government intends to privatize PZU: 2001.

Source: AFP, 8 September 1999.

Number of Russians who emigrated to the United States in 1998: 11,000.

Source: US Consul General in Moscow Laura Clerici, as reported by RFE/RL, 3 September 1999.

Numerical drop in membership in the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies between 1989--99: from 4,000 to 3,400.

Source: Ken Ringle, "Scholars Left Out In the Thaw," Washington Post, 13 November 1999.

The ratio of American top executive to factory worker pay in 1980 and in 1999, respectively: 42 and 419.

Source: "A Decade of Executive Excess," the sixth annual survey of executive compensation by the Institute for Policy Studies and by United for a Fair Economy, as reported by Tim Smart in Washington Post, 30 August 1999.

Number of visas issued yearly to Russians by U.S. consulates in Moscow and St. Petersburg since 1991: 250,000.

Estimated number of criminals thus admitted to the United States: "thousands."

Source: Arnaud de Borchgrave, "Russian kleptocracy well known in the West," UPI, 29 August 1999.

Percentage of Americans believing in Darwinist evolution, theistic evolution, or creationism: 10 percent, 39 percent and 44 percent, respectively.

Source: A 1997 Gallup poll, as reported by Houston Chronicle, 19 September 1999.

Percentage of Poles who believe in dreams: 60 percent.

Percentage of Poles who read horoscopes in newspapers: 50 percent.

Percentage of Poles who consulted a fortune teller at least once in their lives: 13 percent.

Source: Center for the Study of Public Opinion (OBOP) poll, as reported by Donosy, 9 September 1999.

Number of democratic countries in 1980 (out of 121): 37.

Number of democracies in 1998 (out of 193): 117.

Percentage of world population living in democracies in 1980 and in 1998: 37 percent and 54 percent.

Source: Economist, 11-17 September 1999.

Number of nuclear warheads Russia can retain according to START II agreement which Russia has signed but not ratified: between 3,000 and 3,500 by 2007.

Estimated number of nuclear warheads and strategic ballistic missiles Russia presently has: 4,500 warheads and 1,000 missiles, or well below the 6,000 warheads allowed under the START I treaty with the United States.

Source: U.S. intelligence report released 9 September 1999, as reported by AFP (Washington), 9 September 1999.

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