If you travel internationally or carry out your international business with this diminutive annual reference tucked in your coat pocket, you’re loaded.
A sturdy little book only slightly larger than a well-stamped passport with some additional pages sewn in provides you with a feast of profile-making numbers. They’re arranged thematically and also by country.
Who leads the world in car ownership per thousand people?: Lebanon, New Zealand, Brunei, and Luxembourg.
Who runs those cars into people and things most energetically?: Malawi, Rwanda, South Korea, and Costa Rica.
And so on.
At the end, you get an alphabetical listing of the world’s nation-states with the population, GDP, GDP-per-head, Area, and Median Age next to each.
This is only a taster. It gets better.
If you subscribe to the Economist, you already receive the Pocket World in Figures. If you don’t, spend the ten bucks and give your passport some pleasant company.
Canter Bridge 
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