by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman

I love the movies and go often, as do many of my friends. But, I was surprised to learn that we’re not as much of a movie-going nation as I imagined. People in Australia and New Zealand see more movies on average than Americans.

We’re also 20th in the world in publication of daily newspapers. While we think of ourselves as a rich nation, we have the largest deficit and are not even listed in the top 50 countries with a surplus.

Of every 1,000 people, only 465 own cars. That puts us as at 14th in the world with even places as small as Malta and Iceland ahead of us.

Nine places on the globe have higher living standards in terms of dollars then we have. Little Luxembourg tops the list.

All these facts are included in a wonderful source book titled Pocket World in Figures, 2008 edition, published by The Economist magazine—and it is pocket-size!

The rankings of 183 countries are fascinating and provide good information for analysis. You’ll probably agree with me that the data are quite surprising.