10 things by Elen Lewis

20% of Britons say they are too busy at work to use up their holiday allowance, while 25% claim they end up working on their break.

Once we turn 60, we are 14% more likely to die on our birthdays than any other day.

The total haul of today’s fishermen is 6% of that caught by their forebears in sailing boats in the late 19^th century.

The Royal Mail shreds almost 15m undelivered items every year, 300,000 a week.

The number of homeless families in England has risen 14% over the past year.

40% of people think dinner parties are too expensive, time-consuming and stressful to bother with.

57% of pet owners let their animals share their beds and 39% have kicked their partner out of bed, rather than their pet to get a good night’s sleep.

In the 1950s women typically burned up to 1000 calories a day doing household chores.

Overall numbers of butterflies fell by 20% between 2010 and 2011.

A single raindrop can weigh up to 50 times as much as a mosquito.

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