Numbers / The anaesthetist

A guide to the important numbers of the year:

0: Number of people who signed up for a Leeds University course on the works of Catherine Cookson.

2: Times Diana uttered the name "Charles" in her Panorama interview.

8: Cups of tea drunk each day by the average inhabitant of Dagenham - the tea-drinking capital of Britain.

23: Percentage of British men who wash their hands before making love.

27: Percentage of British company directors who came close to knowing the Bank of England lending rate.

70: O-levels passed by Francis Thomason of West London, who stressed the importance of comfortable slippers when taking exams.

78: Percentage of male accountants who consider themselves "fitting consorts" for Elizabeth Hurley.

100: Sacks of cement a villager in Java was ordered to pay as punishment for committing incest with his daughter.

173: Environmental treaties recorded in the Worldwatch "Vital Signs 1995" report.

229: Xerox copies made for each of the 35,000 delegates to the UN Women's Conference in Peking.

6,250: Number of people per public lavatory in Guangzhou, China, after the installation of 200 extra portable toilets.

6,563: Establishments offering sexual services in Thailand according to a government survey in January.

8,300: People per public lavatory in Guangzhou, before the installation of 200 extra portable toilets.

13,000: Times the word "glove" was spoken at the OJ

Simpson trial.

15,000: Times the word "blood" was used at the trial.

52,000: Books Duncan Jevons stole from shops, libraries, universities, museums and churches over the past 30 years.

2,367,234: Malaysian 20-sen coins used in setting a new world record of 55.63km for the longest line of coins.

4,985,567,071,200: Figure (in dollars) at which the US national debt clock stopped when the budget dispute put a brake on government spending.

(The usual Numbers competition will return in the new year.)