The United States population on 1 July 1995 and estimated population in 2050:
262.8 million and 393.9 million.
Ethnic composition of the U.S. population in 1995:
73.6% white, 12% black, 10.2% Latino, 3.3% Asian, 0.7% American Indian. Forecast for 2050:
52.8% white, 24.5% Latino, 13.6% black, 8.2% Asian, 0.9% American Indian.
Source: Robert A. Rosenblatt, "Hispanics, Asians to become driving force in U.S. population growth," Houston Chronicle, 14 March 1996.

Number of Polish Americans in the state of Texas according to 1990 census:
237,557.
1990 census figures for Polish Americans (total):
9,3 million, or 3.8% of American population.
Source: John Radzilowski, "The Location of the Polish American Population 1980-1990," Polish American Association Newsletter, Vol. 52, No. 2 (May 1996), 2-3.

Number of anti-communist Poles killed while resisting arrest, wounded while resisting arrest, and arrested by Soviet-controlled internal security police (UB) in Soviet-occupied Poland in 1945-1948:
626, 20, 6107 (in 1945); 760, 259, 20154 (in 1946); 412, 104, 9233 (in 1947); 152, 51, 9795 (in 1948).
Source: Internal security police records (in Soviet-occupied Poland) for 1945-1948, as reported by Dariusz Goszczynski, "Proces Humera czy sprawa UB," Najwyýszy Czas, 27 March 1996.

Number of people in Ukraine who contracted infectious diseases in 1995:
9 million, including 500 cases of cholera.
Source: Reuter, 13 May 1996.

Percentage of American visitors to Leningrad in 1969-1973 who contracted giardiasis, an alimentary tract disease caused by parasite giardia:
23%.
Source: Houston Chronicle (Travel Section), 12 May 1996.

Estimated number of drug users in Russia in 1995:
2 million.
Estimated percentage by which this number increases yearly:
50%.
Source: Associated Press, 1 March 1996.

Number of people who died of AIDS in Poland to-date (since the 1980s when statistics began to be kept):
300.
Source: Donosy, 14 May 1996.

Number of identified HIV infections in Ukraine and Belarus to-date, respectively:
5,000 and 100.
Source: UPI, 9 July 1996.

Number of people worldwide who died of tuberculosis in 1995:
3 million.
Source: Anita Manning, "TB threat grows worldwide," USA Today, 22-24 March 1996.

Percentage of Russian domestic food consumption that comes from imports:
45%.
Source: Reuter, 28 and 29 February 1996.

Estimated number of years it will take Russians to reach the average per capita income in Eastern Europe:
15.
Source: Reuter, 17 May 1996.

Direct foreign investment in RussiaÕs oil sector in 1995:
$175 million.
Source: Lynnley Browning, "Foreign oil firms go slow on Russian investment," Reuter, 20 May 1996.

Percentage of farms in Russia that were privately owned in 1995:
5%.
Their share of food output:
5%.
Source: Reuter, 24 May 1996.

Russian GNP in 1995:
$366 billion.
Source: Reuter, 13 June 1996.

1995 overseas net assets of Japan and Germany, two wealthiest countries in terms of foreign holdings:
$720 billion and $16.16 billion.
Source: P.H. Ferguson, "Japan richest land in foreign holdings: Nation leads for fifth consecutive year, according to survey, " Houston Chronicle, 25 May 1996.

Estimated number of Gypsies [Roma] in Poland:
20,000-70,000.
Source: Alaine Lemon of OMRI Daily Digest, 3 January 1996.

Number of people who emigrated from Poland in 1919-1939:
2 million. Number of those who returned:
900,000.
Source: Poland To-Day: Principal Matters in the Everyday Life of Poland (Warsaw:
Information Bulletins 1939).

Percentage by which crime rates fell in Poland in the first half of 1996 (from a year before):
13.1%.
Percentage by which crime involving young people fell in the same period:
17%.
Source: Reuter, 10 July 1996.

The average print run for translated American authors in Poland in 1995:
6,000--8,000.
The average advance from publishers for a book by an American author:
$1,200.
Phone/fax of the Graal/Straz-Kanska Literary Agency in Warsaw that sells American books to Polish publishers:
(48-2) 627-1284.
Source: Herbert R. Lottman, "Poland: A Desirable Market ThatÕs Maturing--But Slowly," PublisherÕs Weekly, 15 January 1996, p. 321.

Polish grain production in 1995:
26 million metric tons.
Price per ton as of mid-January 1996:
$480-$503.
Source: Wojciech Moskwa of Reuter,10 January 1996.

Ukrainian grain production in 1995:
36 million metric tons.
Estimated Ukrainian grain production in 1996:
30 million metric tons.
Source: Reuter, 10 July 1996.

Number of hotels operating in Russia in 1995:
4,000.
Number of tourists in Russia in 1995:
5.2 million.
Source: Associated Press, 6 December 1995.

Number of visitors in Poland in 1995:
19.2 million (excluding visitors from the CIS states).
Gross income from tourism in Poland in 1995:
$3 billion.
Source: Newsletter of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Washington, DC, Vol. II (May 1996).

Number of foreign cars which entered Poland in 1995:
30 million.
Source: Donosy, 15 July 1996.

Percentage by which new auto sales rose in Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) countries between 1994 and 1995:
8.5 percent, or from 545,900 units in 1994 to 592,073 units in 1995. (CEFTA comprises the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and -- since January 1996 -- Slovenia. The survey includes data from Slovenia.).
Source: Ryan Tutak of Reuter (Budapest), 26 February 1996.

Automobile sales in Poland in 1995:
265,000.
Estimated automobile sales in Poland in 1996:
300,000.
Source: Reuter, 11 July 1996.

Polish foreign trade turnover in 1995:
$51.9 billion.
Value of Polish exports per capita in 1995:
$543.
Value of exports per capita in leading postindustrial nations:
ca. $5,000.
Source: UPI, 21 May 1996.

Joint money supply in Poland as of 10 March 1996 (zloty and hard currency deposits in banks plus cash in circulation):
PLN 110 billion, or $42.3 billion.
Source: Newsletter of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Washington, DC, Vol. II (May 1996).

Estimated inflation in Poland in July 1996:
0.5%.
Central Bank estimate of 1996 inflation in Poland:
18.8%.
Government target inflation in Poland in 1996:
17%.
Source: Reuter, 10 July 1996.

Estimated average GDP growth in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria in 1996:
4%. In 1997:
5%.
Estimated 1996 inflation in Bulgaria:
120%; Romania, 30%; Hungary, 24%; Poland, 22%; rump Yugoslavia, 120%, Croatia, 3%.
Estimated 1995 unemployment in Macedonia:
38%; in Croatia, 18%; in Poland, 14%.
Source: Vienna-based Institute for Comparative Economic Studies, as reported by Reuter, 11 July 1996.

Drop in the Russian GDP in the first five months of 1996 (by comparison with the same period in 1995):
5%.
Source: UPI, 15 July 1996.

Percentage of army recruits in Romania in 1995 who had a criminal record (out of a total of 190,000):
14%.
Source: Defense Ministry Report, as reported by the UPI, 11 July 1996.

Number of suicides in Poland (per 100,000 population) in 1938:
9, or the lowest in Europe (a tie with Italy).
Source: Poland To-Day: Principal Matters in the Everyday Life of Poland (Warsaw:
Information Bulletins 1939).

Percentage of GDP collected in taxes by the Russian government in the first half of 1996:
11%
Average percentage of GDP collected yearly in taxes by western European governments:
40%.
Source: Marshall Ingwerson of the Christian Science Monitor, 14 July 1996.