Random, Interesting and Useless Travel Facts

Like a good cheese or a fine wine, the list of HoliDaze #TravelFacts just keeps getting better with age. I saved these useless travel facts until now because they are the best. So, without any further ado, it’s time to get your knowledge on!

• The average number of tourists in San Marino at any given moment is around 19 times the resident population.
• Only two countries in the world are doubly landlocked: Liechtenstein and Uzbekistan.
• Brazil takes up 47.8% of South America.
• Guinea has the wettest capital on Earth, with over 12 feet (3.7 metres) of rain a year!
• France is the top destination in the world for tourists, accounting for 11% of all tourist arrivals worldwide.
• American planes take-off a staggering 8.5 million times per year — almost half the number of airplane take-offs worldwide.
• Two-thirds of the world’s kidnappings occur in Colombia.
• Houses in English-speaking countries have the most rooms.
• Brazil is the heliport capital of the world.
• Kazakhstan is the world’s largest landlocked country.



• There are more known reptile species in Australia than in all other listed countries combined.
• Nauru is the world’s smallest independent republic. But not the smallest sovereign territory — that is Vatican City.
• In Ethiopia, nine out of ten births occur without skilled health staff present.
• You can be imprisoned for not voting in Chile, Fiji, and Egypt — at least in theory.
• The top ten tourist destinations — France, Spain, USA, Italy, China, United Kingdom, Austria, Mexico, Germany and Canada — account for 49.6% of all tourist arrivals worldwide.
• About one-quarter of all nations drive on the left-hand-side of the road. Most of them are former British colonies.
• Train spotters should go to Australia — Australians have more railway per capita than anyone else on the globe.
• Members of the armed forces and the police cannot vote in the Dominican Republic.
• In Montserrat nearly 1% of the population are police officers.
• There are 11 countries where the average woman has more than six children. Ten of them are in Africa.
• Indonesia contains the most known mammal species — and the most mammal species under threat.
• Many Americans live alone — so many that the United States leads the world in one person households.
• Nauru, Tokelau and Western Sahara are the only three countries in the world without official capital cities.
• The total area of Australia‘s coral reefs is greater than the total area of any of 130 individual countries.
• The four largest nations are Russia, China, United States, and Canada.
• Taiwan and Luxembourg are the only countries in the world where the mobile phones outnumber the people!
• The Pitcairn Islands have the world’s shortest highway system, with only 6.4 kilometers of road. They also have the fourth-fewest main phone lines.
• Andorra has no unemployment. Well, they did briefly for a short period in 2011 — much to everyone’s shock.
• Canada is immigrant-friendly. It confers the most new citizenships per capita and per $ GDP, and the second-most new citizenships overall.
• There are 22 countries where more than half the population is illiterate. Fifteen of them are in Africa.
• Bolivia has 4,500 Navy personnel — doesn’t that seem like quite a lot for a landlocked country?
• The Mall in Washington, D.C. is 1.4 times larger than Vatican City — and they don’t hustle you through!
• Sick of crowds? Move to Greenland! Greenlanders have 38 square kilometers of land per person.
• The United States has more personal computers than the next 7 countries combined.
• More than a third of the world’s airports are in the United States of America.



• Sri Lanka has lowest divorce rate in the world — and the highest rate of female suicide.
• 22% of New Zealanders have used cannabis (and those are only the ones who admit it!)
• Nepal‘s flag isn’t square or rectangular. It’s a double triangle. The only one in the world like that.
• Malaysia has the lowest rate of cinema attendance in the world.
• Libya has had lots of names. When it gained it’s independence in 1951 it chose the name United Libyan Kingdom. That changed to Kingdom of Libya in 1963. Following a coup d’état in 1969, the name of the state was again changed — this time to the Libyan Arab Republic. Starting in 1977 it became known as Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and then from 1986-2011 it was: Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. But now, as of 2012, is simply Libya. Creative, huh?
• If you like kids, then Uganda might be the place for you. Half the population is under 15!
• Senior gentlemen might consider a trip to Russia, where there are two women over 65 for every man.
• Of all the nations of the world, China has the most people with a staggering 1.4 billion. However there are 71 nations that are more crowded.

Even more interesting but useless travel facts

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