Opinion: Innate drive develops entrepreneurial ventures

Percentage who said work experience is their prime motivator: 21

Percentage of entrepreneurs surveyed who identify “higher education” as the primary motivator for starting a business: 1

Health care costs vs. inflation

Percentage increase in the average cost of health care for U.S. employees (per person) in 2005, according to a survey conducted by Hewitt Associates: 9.2

Average annual inflation rate in 2005: 3.4

Percentage increase in 2006: 7.9

Average annual inflation rate in the first half of 2006: 3.8

Housing crash

Percentage of U.S. metro areas that could experience a housing “crash” (10 percent drop in sales price from peak) in the next few years, according to a study conducted by Moody’s Economy.com: 5.2

Rank of California, southwest Florida, Nevada and Arizona in terms of having the number of metro areas most likely to crash: 1, 2, 3, 4

300M people

Date the United States joined China and India as the third country to be home to at least 300 million people, according to the Population Reference Bureau: Oct. 17, 2006

Year the United States reached its first 100 million: 1915

Year the U.S. population reached 200 million: 1967

Projected year in which the U.S. population will reach 400 million: 2043

Insuring Soprano

When asked to consider television dads and select the character they believe needs the greatest amount of life insurance coverage, percentage of Americans who said Tony Soprano, according to a survey by LIFE Foundation: 25

Percentage who selected Homer Simpson: 12

MySpace growth

Number of unique visitors to www.myspace.com in July 2005, according to Nielsen/NetRatings: 16,239,000

Number of unique visitors to www.myspace.com in July 2006: 46,025,000

Rank of www.myspace.com among the top 10 fastest-growing Internet brands in the U.S. at-home/at-work Internet market between July 2005 and July 2006: 1

International workers

Percentage of recruiters who said the most common reason for U.S. citizens working overseas to fail at their jobs is a lack of cultural fit, according to more than 140 international recruiters surveyed by Korn/Ferry International: 51

Percentage of recruiters who said personal or family issues were to blame: 23

Computer time

Percentage of U.S. workers who use a computer at work who admit to having searched for a new job on their companies’ time and resources, according to a survey by Hudson: 23

Percentage of workers who say they send and receive personal e-mails at work at least most days, if not every day: 30

Working families

Percentage of U.S. adults who say divorce has a negative impact on maintaining a stable American family life, according to the survey commissioned by Martindale-Hubbell’s www.lawyers.com from LexisNexis and Redbook magazine: 88

Percentage of U.S. adults who say dual-career households negatively impact families: 50

College materials

Percentage of U.S. college students who didn’t purchase all their required course materials in 2005, according to a survey by the National Association of College Stores Foundation: 65

Percentage who did not do so because of lack of money: 40

Idle Thought

“Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots.” —Frank A. Clark, writer

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.