ALCOHOL
Someone has finally found a use for alcohol that doesn’t destroy families, wreck careers, or kill people on our highways. The city of Stockholm, Sweden, recently purchased 750,000 gallons of red wine for conversion into ethanol to fuel its public buses.
—”Harper’s” (12/95)
Estimated number of Americans attending Twelve Step programs today: 14,000,000
—”Spires and Spirals” (Vol. 5; 1995)
CHILDREN
Number of children being raised by grandparents without a parent in the home: 1,017,000
—U.S. Census Bureau, cited in the “Chicago Tribune” (12/20/95)
Percentage of households with children that are headed by one parent: 30.8
—Family Research Council (1995)
Percentage of births to unmarried women: 31
—National Center for Health Statistics, cited in “InFocus” (11/9/95)
Percentage of adults who strongly agree that “parents today are too lenient and permissive with their children”: 63
—Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, cited in “USA Today” (11/27/95)
INFORMATION
Percentage of adults who visited a public library at least once last year: 67
—Gallup Poll for “U.S. News & World Report” (12/11/95)
Percentage of adults who have never owned a personal computer: 55
—”PC Magazine” (12/19/95)
MARRIAGE
Number of unmarried adults in 1970: 37 million
Number in 1993: 72 million
Percentage of previously cohabiting married couples who divorce within 10 years: 38
Percentage of married couples previously living separately who divorce within 10 years: 27
—APA Monitor, cited in “Psychology Today” (Nov-Dec/95)
SIMPLICITY
Number of pages of the U.S. Constitution, the operating manual for a nation of 258 million people: 21
Number of pages of the operating manual of a Toyota Camry, which seats only five: 228
—Hope Health Letter (10/95)
1996 Christianity Today/LEADERSHIP Journal
