Danes, Americans rank most satisfied with life

Estimated number of Americans who report that eBay is their primary or secondary source of income, according to a survey conducted for eBay by ACNielsen International Research: 724,000

Estimated number of individual Americans (in addition to professional eBay sellers) who say they supplement their income by selling on eBay: 1.5 million

Estimated worth of merchandise sold by eBay members in the United States in the first six months of 2005: $10.6 billion

E-mail literacy

Percentage of U.S. employees who say e-mail writing skills are extremely or very important in how effectively they do their jobs, according to a survey by Information Mapping Inc.: 80

Percentage of employees who say they waste between 30 and 60 minutes daily reading ineffectively written emails: 34

Wake up!

Percentage of Americans who say they need a clock radio to wake up from a sound sleep, according to a survey by the Opinion Research Corporation: 78

Number of times clock radio users hit the snooze button before they get up: 2.5

Inheritance

Percentage of elders (adults age 65 and older) who believe they owe their children an inheritance, according to a survey conducted for The Allianz American Legacies: 22

Percentage of baby boomers (adults age 40 to 59) who believe they owe their children an inheritance: 3

Women at work

Percentage of women who “step out” of the work force to raise a family and are positive about their decision, according to a survey by the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change and The Forte Foundation: 70

Percentage who feel discouraged by employers about their opportunities for full-time employment upon re-entry: 50

Percentage of women step-outs who are dedicating the next phase of their careers to smaller companies: 59

The good life

Percentage of Americans who say they are very satisfied with the life they lead, in a survey by Harris Interactive: 58

Percentage of people in Denmark, the only European country whose citizens say they are more satisfied with the life they lead than the United States: 64

Percentage of people in Germany who say they are very satisfied with the life they lead: 21

Percentage of Italians who are very satisfied with the life they lead: 16

John MacIntyre is an author and former city magazine editor. His Figuratively Speaking column, launched in 1989, is published in more than 40 newspapers and magazines.