You Can Look It Up

Want to know how many credit cards Americans carry? Or how many dozen eggs the U.S. produces each year? The answers to these questions (841 million and 5.8 billion, respectively) and an astounding number of others are to be found in a factual gold mine called the Statistical Abstract of the United States, a 984-page volume packed full of figures from the mundane to the delightful. First published in 1878, the Abstract each spring sends librarians, market researchers, consultants and journalists scurrying to mine its nuggets. But the Census Bureau publication goes well beyond gee-whiz numbers. Its 1,450 tables and charts offer a fascinating window on the world. With imagination -- and strong eyes for the fine print -- a reader can use the Abstract to make at least a little sense out of the world's never-ending and confusing blizzard of information.

The Abstract, 32,000 copies of which were bought last year, is the product of Government statisticians, with backgrounds ranging from economics to political science, who pore over newspapers and scientific treatises to unearth facts. They rely on more than 200 sources and spend a year putting together a single volume, at a bargain-basement cost of $600,000. Naturally, the authors are looking forward to the huge 1990 census, with its treasure trove of information. Updated data from that survey should begin to appear in the 1991 edition. If one obscure fact or another happens to be missing from the volume, which costs $32 hardbound and $26 in paperback, the statisticians can probably find it -- as they did when an Australian wanted to know how much yogurt Americans consume. Answer: an average of 4.6 lbs. per person in 1987, a nearly sixfold increase since 1970.

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CREDIT: Charts by Davis, Lertola & Holmes

[TMFONT 1 d #666666 d {Source: Statisical Abstract of the United States, 1989}]CAPTION: Growing older

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CREDIT: Charts by Davis, Lertola & Holmes

[TMFONT 1 d #666666 d {Source: Statisical Abstract of the United States, 1989}]CAPTION: Getting wired

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CREDIT: Charts by Davis, Lertola & Holmes

[TMFONT 1 d #666666 d {Source: Statisical Abstract of the United States, 1989}]CAPTION: Changing tastes

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CREDIT: Charts by Davis, Lertola & Holmes

[TMFONT 1 d #666666 d {Source: Statisical Abstract of the United States, 1989}]CAPTION: How we play