Statistics for Christian communicators.
Number of times a child laughs each day, on average: 400
Number of times an adult laughs each day, on average: 15
Number of Americans with stress-related insomnia: 1 in 5
Number on any given day who need more sleep: 45 million
Percentage decrease in average sleep time, since 1900: 20
Percentage of Americans attending church in 1992: 40
In 1972: 40
Percentage of Americans-men, women, and children-receiving food stamps in February 1993: 10.5
Rank of drunk driving, among reasons for arrests in U.S.: 1
U.S. residents for whom English is a foreign tongue: 1 in 7
Percentage increase since 1980: 38
U.S. residents who speak little or no English: 1 in 25
Percentage of children under age 6 in child care, in 1990: 58
In 1970: 29
Percentage of children living in single-parent families, in 1991: 28
In 1960: 10
Percentage of adults who see a parent at least weekly: 54
Who talk by phone to a parent at least weekly: 68
Number of elderly (over 60) in Europe and North America: 185 million
In 1950: 90 million
In 2025, estimated: 310 million
Father Act
A survey conducted by Child magazine and reported in the 3/93 issue found more fathers today taking part in child-raising than those of a generation ago.
Putting children to bed (62 percent now; 16 percent then)
Changing diapers (53 to 6 percent)
Attending kids’ sporting events (52 to 37 percent)
Reading to children (49 to 14 percent)
Bathing children (46 to 24 percent)
Feeding children (40 to 12 percent)
Helping with homework (30 to 21 percent)
Attending parent/teacher conferences (45 to 24 percent)
Cleaning house (25 to 8 percent)
Washing dishes (44 to 16 percent)
Some things haven’t changed. Nearly two out of three of today’s fathers (65 percent) discipline their children about the same as their fathers (61 percent).
On the downside, 49 percent of the women say their husbands give more attention to the children than to them, but 72 percent of the men disagree and say they do not give the children more attention than their wives.
Giving More
Belt-tightening-that’s what many expected of Americans last year. It now appears, however, that the belt actually may have loosened. Americans gave more to charities in 1992 than ever before, up 6.4 percent over 1991 to $124.31 billion.
Individuals remain the largest contributors (88 percent), followed by foundations (7 percent) and corporations (5 percent). (Of the three categories, only corporations did not increase giving over the previous year.)
Religion received the largest portion of donations, up 5.2 percent to $56.71 billion (46 percent). Education was a distant second with $14.02 billion (11 percent).
-American Association of Fund-Raising Counsel, reported in The Chicago Tribune, 5/26/93
SOURCES – Laughter: Dagbladet (Oslo), reported in World Press Review, 6/93. Sleep: National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research, reported in The Chicago Tribune, 3/21/93. Church attendance: PRRC Emerging Trends, 3/93. Food stamps: Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, reported in The Chicago Tribune, 4/29/93. Drunk driving: Harper’s, 2/93. English: U.S. Census Bureau, reported in The New York Times, 4/28/93. Child care: The Chicago Tribune, 4/30/93. Single-parent families: Empower America, reported in The Chicago Tribune, 5/7/93. Adults and parents: Newsweek, 12/7/92. Elderly: UN’s Economic Commission for Europe and the United Nations Population Fund, reported in The Chicago Tribune, 3/24/93.
Copyright © 1993 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
