Love and Marriage By the Numbers

When it comes to love, numbers can bring some shocking revelations, according to David Boyle and Anita Roddick in Shocking, Hilarious, Bizarre, Mindboggling, Frightening!, Fascinating Numbers. Here are a few of the findings cited by the authors:

•  Seventy-three percent of Russian women and 63 percent of Japanese women believe themselves to be in love. However, only 63 percent of Russian men and 41 percent of Japanese men believe that they are in love.

•  Only 12 percent of married people think they will ever get a divorce, much lower than the divorce rate, which is close to 50 percent in the United States.

•  Only 10 percent of those who leave their spouses for someone they are having an affair with actually end up marrying the person.

•  Eighty percent of separated and divorced people believe that marriage should be for life.

•  If you kiss for one minute, you will burn 28 calories.

•  Eight percent said they would like to be rid of their current partners.

•  Ninety percent of third marriages end in divorce.

•  French people have sex on average 130 times a year.

Did you know that about 6,000 marriages take place a day in the United States?

•  The average age of first marriages for women is 25.3 and for men is 27.1.

•  The proportion of women 20 to 24 years old who had never married went from 36 percent in 1970 to 75 percent in 2003.

•  The proportion of men who had never married went from 55 percent in 1970 to 86 percent in 2003.

•  Fifty-four percent of American women and 57 percent of American men over the age of 15 are currently married.

•  There are 4.6 million couples cohabitating in the United States.

 
And He’s Not Just Whistling Dixie 

According to legend, if a groundhog sees his shadow on Groundhog’s Day then there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t see his shadow, there will be an early spring. The most famous groundhog of all, of course is Punxsutawney Phil from Pennsylvania. He has been around for 119 years, according to Punxsutawney locals.

In honor of Groundhog’s Day, Feb. 2, here are a few fun groundhog facts gleaned from groundhog.org, the official site of the Punxsutawney groundhog club:

•  The average groundhog is 20 inches long and normally weighs from 12 to 15 pounds. Punxsutawney Phil weighs about 20 pounds and is 22 inches long.

•  Groundhogs are covered with coarse grayish hairs (fur) tipped with brown or sometimes dull red. They have short ears, a short tail, short legs and are surprisingly quick. Their jaws are exceptionally strong.

•  A groundhog’s diet consists of lots of greens, fruits and vegetables and very little water. Most of their liquids come from dew on leaves.

•  A groundhog can whistle when it is alarmed. Groundhogs also whistle in the spring when they begin courting.

•  Insects do not bother groundhogs and germs pretty much leave them alone. They are resistant to the plagues that periodically wipe out large numbers of wild animals. One reason for this is their cleanliness.

•  Groundhogs are one of the few animals that really hibernate. Hibernation is not just a deep sleep. It is actually a deep coma, where the body temperature drops to a few degrees above freezing, the heart barely beats, the blood scarcely flows and breathing nearly stops.

•  Young groundhogs are usually born in mid-April or May. By July they are able to go out on their own. The size of the litter is four to nine. A baby groundhog is called a kit or a cub.

•  A groundhog’s life span is normally six to eight years. Phil receives a drink of a magical punch every summer during the annual Groundhog Picnic, which gives him seven more years of life.