Life is full of hidden gems of knowledge and facts, including some incredible statistics that can either enrich your knowledge, change the way you see day-to-day experiences, or just bring you some amusement.
Whether you’re gearing up for your next pub quiz or just fond of random bits of trivia, we’ve gathered a stack of interesting random facts about life that will surprise you.
Read on for the full lowdown – here are 53 interesting facts about life as we know them!
1. US citizens eat a LOT.
No matter your diet, and no matter what your favourite dishes might be, it’s likely you will eat more than 35 tons of food in your life if you live in the USA.
2. You’d better have some answers ready for your kids!
Your four-year-old son or daughter is likely to ask you more than 400 questions a day. Better get brushing up on those answers – read our facts pages for a head start, at least!
3. Very few parts of the body only have three letters in their names.
There are many different parts of the human body that simply can’t all be listed here. However, around ten of them only have three letters in their names! These are gum, jaw, leg, toe, ear, hip, eye, lip, rib, and arm.
4. You can’t breathe while swallowing.
You’re physically unable to swallow and breathe at the same time. It’s probably best you don’t try it.
5. You shed skin – many, many times.
It’s thought that your skin replaces itself regularly without you ever realizing it. In fact, it is likely to do this around 900 times during your lifetime.
6. Some genetic chains are easily broken.
It’s completely possible to break thousands of years of human lineage simply by giving birth to a specific gender of child. A woman who gives birth only to sons and no daughters will break a long chain of lineage that dates back to the very start of human evolution.
7. You’ll likely walk millions of steps.
Are you always trying to get 10,000 steps a day on your step-o-metre? During your life, you will likely take more than 183,000,000 of them. Better start getting some steps in now so that you can meet your quota!
8. Fake happiness is bad for you.
Fake happiness occurs all the time, but did you know that showing too many fake smiles can actually harm your long-term health? It’s thought that faking happiness can lead to withdrawal and may actually provoke further detrimental health problems later on in life. Therefore, it’s probably better you only try and show that you are happy when you mean it!
9. Bacteria really weighs on you!
We should all know by now that bacteria are all around us. However, what you might not know is that you could have up to nine pounds of it in your body at any one time! Don’t worry, however, as not all of it is bad for you!
10. Men likely won’t live as long as women.
Women are much more likely to live longer than men, on the whole. This is thought to be as a result of male immune systems aging much quicker on average.
11. You spend more time on the John than you think.
It’s highly likely that you will spend at least three months of your life sitting on or going to the toilet. In fact, sitting still for more than three hours a day – when you’re awake – could reduce your lifespan by up to two years.
This sitting could be even longer if you take a smartphone in there with you! It’s thought that the average US citizen will spend around five months of their life using their smartphone, or at least calling or texting people. How much of that will be spent on the toilet?
12. Washing your hands will save lives.
It’s always important to thoroughly wash your hands. In fact, doing so could help to save almost one million people around the world each year. If there’s anything the recent worries over COVID-19 has taught us, it’s that hand washing is crucial!
13. Computers are smart – but not as smart as you!
It’s thought that the human brain is able to compute 38 thousand trillion executions and operations each second. Compare this to some of the world’s most proficient computers, which are only able to work to around 1% of this power.
14. You actually grow in outer space!
Thanks to changes in gravity, astronauts will often find that they are two inches taller in space than they are on Earth. Not that they’re measuring themselves while on missions!
15. Fingerprints arrive after a while.
You won’t develop fingerprints as soon as you are born. These will develop when you are around three months old.
16. There’s an unbelievable number of cells in the human body.
Your body is likely to be home to around 37 trillion cells.
17. Blinking takes up a lot of your time!
You’re likely to spend around 10% of your whole life blinking. Don’t try and measure for yourself too much! In fact, statistically, women are likely to blink twice as much as men do! Their hearts generally beat faster, and they have better senses of smell, too.
18. Your teeth are chock-full of calcium!
Your body needs calcium, but no area quite so much as your teeth. That’s because 99% of your body’s calcium levels reside there, believe it or not!
19. You’ll probably forget most of your dreams.
It’s highly likely that, during your life, you will forget about 90% of all the dreams you have ever had. Better start keeping a dream diary so you can recall the good ones!
20. Who lives longer – right or left-handers?
Right-handers, on average, live longer than left-handers. This is not helped by the fact that many left-handed people die each year as a result of using right-handed equipment.
21. Life expectancy is actually going up – but make sure you sleep!
If you were ever worried that our chances of living longer are going down, there’s no need to panic. In fact, our life expectancy is increasing year on year – on average, by three months at a time. But, you should know that you’re less likely to live to your full expectancy potential if you don’t get enough sleep.
In fact, you’re likely to need at least seven hours a night, it’s thought, for you to live your longest. So make sure you set your sleeping priorities straight!
22. Your voice changes easily.
The sound and shape of your voice changes based on a variety of factors. However, did you know that your nose can have a huge impact?
23. Many people love eating ice – but it’s often a sign of something.
Many people crave ice to the point where they will love eating or crunching it in soft drinks! However, it could be a sign that you are suffering from specific deficiencies. In particular, you could be lacking in iron!
24. WWII may have killed 3% of all people on Earth.
On a slightly bleaker note, World War II was so devastating that, of everyone alive on Earth in 1939, only 97% of them survived the conflict.
25. Your strongest muscle is in your mouth!
There are plenty of strong muscles in the human body, but the strongest is thought to be the tongue. Speaking of tongues, you are actually likely to lose most of them by the time you reach the age of 60. Most people reaching older age will only have half of their taste buds left from their youth.
26. Many people believe the end of the world will happen in their lifetime.
There are lots of theories out there regarding the way the world will end. In fact, around 20% of people in the US believe that they will witness the apocalypse themselves.
27. You were a record holder as soon as you were born.
If you think about it, you were once the youngest person on the planet. However, with thousands of births taking place all over the world, this is never a record that people can hold onto for long. You were actually present in your mother’s reproductive system from the moment she was born – your egg was present in her body from birth.
28. Many people, too, believe in the afterlife.
Interestingly, around 82% of US citizens also believe that there will be some form of life after death.
29. What’s the biggest killer in the US?
Heart disease is one of the biggest killers in the USA, but medical errors are thought to be in the top five.
30. Bone is stronger than steel!
You’re likely to have around 300 bones in the body when you are born, but this will decrease by up to a third as you grow into adulthood. What’s even more interesting, bone itself is thought to be five times the strength of steel.
31. Could you live past 110?
There’s a one in seven million chance of you living beyond the age of 110. Can you prove the statistics wrong – many people have!
32. You won’t start seeing colours for a while.
Babies are only able to see in black and white from birth, as they will develop colour vision later in life.
33. Not just sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing.
There are more than six senses. Humans can also experience senses of thirst, suffocation, pain, balance, and even time. Our sense of time is one which separates us from most animals.
34. Working might help you live longer.
Are you looking forward to retirement? Don’t be too hasty! Studies suggest that working beyond the age of 65 may actually lead to a longer life. Therefore, if you want to beat the odds of living longer than 110, make sure you keep working!
35. Lullabies start early.
Just as women do, pregnant dolphins are able to sing to their unborn children while they are growing in the womb.
36. Few animals actually mate for life.
Monogamy is rare in the animal kingdom, with only a few species opting to mate for life, much as many humans do. The most fascinating of these is the seahorse, which travel in couples. Even more interesting, of course, is that the males in the seahorse genus give birth, not females!
37. Bees grow hair in some really weird spots!
If you thought you grew hair in strange and awkward places, spare a thought for the honeybee. They can even grow hair directly on their eyeballs!
38. No, the ‘fact’ about spiders disturbing you while you sleep isn’t true.
The fact that sleeping people swallow eight spiders in their lifetime is a falsehood created to test the power of the internet. It’s more likely that you will swallow close to zero in your sleep – spiders are smarter than you think, they won’t go crawling into a mouth willingly!
39. Horses can’t breathe through their mouths.
Unlike most animals, horses can only breathe through their noses.
40. We’re likely drinking the same water the dinosaurs once did!
Every glass of water you drink is likely to contain at least one molecule that a dinosaur once drank. Gross, but fascinating – and completely true.
41. You can give birth to new life after losing yours.
It’s completely possible for deceased women to give birth. This bizarre phenomenon occurs when a pregnant woman passes away, there are still gases in the abdomen which allow the body to give birth.
42. Not a mouth-watering fact…
If you feel your mouth watering from time to time, consider this slightly gross fact. You’re likely to produce more than two swimming pools’ worth of saliva during your life.
43. Honey lasts for centuries!
We’re able to eat foodstuffs that have been around for hundreds, even thousands of years. In fact, you can still safely consume honey that dates back three millennia!
44. Elephants have unique knee numbers.
There are all kinds of animals with similar joints to us. However, elephants are the only creatures on the planet with four knees.
45. Koalas have prints similar to ours.
Koalas share a strange similarity with humans in that we both have fingerprints. However, even stranger is the fact that it’s impossible for you to instantly tell between them. In fact, even experts struggle to separate koala fingerprints from human ones.
46. What’s the ‘average’ person?
It’s thought that the profile of the average person alive today is 28 years old, male, and Chinese.
47. Cambridge University has been around a LONG time.
If you’re lucky enough to study at Cambridge University, you’ll be heading to an institution that has been around longer than the ancient empire of the Aztecs.
48. The ants could over-run us.
If you were to put all humans on one weighing scale, and all ants on Earth on the other, the ants would weigh more.
49. Humans share various genetics with bananas!
The human body is closer to the humble banana than many animals. That’s because we actually share up to 60% of our DNA with the fruit – strange but true!
50. Many, many people are related to Genghis Khan.
There’s a good chance that you are related to the Mongol warrior Genghis Khan – to the point where 0.5% of people are said to be of his direct lineage.
51. Mars is a planet of robots, officially.
While there may not be alien life on Mars that we know about as yet, it is the only planet completely controlled by robots. That’s thanks to the rovers and bots we have scouring the landscape up there!
52. Thumb your nose at this!
On the whole, your thumb is likely to be the same length as your nose. We imagine there are many people measuring up right now while reading this!
53. Some twins are born delayed!
Twins are, generally, likely to be born one after the other in quick succession. However, there has been a case where one twin continued gestating for a further 87 days after the birth of the first!
Do you know any interesting facts about life? Share them in the comments below!
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