Who we are - A miscellany of the New Australia
David Dale

The cover of this book shows a map of Australia with a pair of worn out slippers. In many ways an international symbol for the Aussie Backpacker.

I love statistics and numbers especially when they are presented in a way that makes sense, and this book is filled with such interesting titbits and pieces of information that help us decipher "Australia"

For exact statistics on any topic about Australia have a look here > the website of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. This is where most of the info in this book is sourced from.

The Book is full of numbers and percentages, on topics right from Population to demographics to languages spoken , religion, qualification , smoking habits , to cars , credit cardsdiseases, causes of death, top products used in households, most popular movies, books, music, world records, important dates, animals, inventions , periodicals and every other thing that matters.

To present some interesting numbers from the book,
85% of Australian population lives within 50 Kilometers of a beach ,
1% of Australian population lives on a Farm,
43% of the all marriages are likely to get Divorced
87% of the population are Mobile owners
60% use the internet at least once a week
75% live in a home with three or more Bedrooms
Newzeland , China and India are the biggest source of Migrants Now More info on this here
Cancer Causes 29% of all deaths in Australia.

Apart from plain numbers , there are good facts about Australia, like the defining moments in Australia's history, Important speeches, national anthem etc. There is also a small essay where the author describes a typical day in the life of an Australian family in terms of the products they use.

In all its a very good read and gives a quick snapshot of Australia as we know it.