People love a lot of things. And by that we don’t mean a large variety of things, but when there are just a large number of things. For some reason, a lot of any given thing is oddly fascinating, and this is made even more fascinating when you find that large number of things in an unexpected place..
10. Sudan has Far More Pyramids Than Egypt
The Pyramids of Giza get about 14.7 million visitors per year. The pyramids are one of the Wonders of the World and are arguably one of the most easily identified landmarks in history. Countless movies, both fiction and non-fiction, have been made about them and some people will even sincerely debate you about whether or not aliens built them. One of the lesser known things about pyramids is just how many more of them are found in Sudan than Egypt.
Head down the Nile into Sudan and you’ll find over 200 of them in the sand. Remnants of the ancient Nubian civilization, they’re smaller than the pyramids of Egypt, but still very impressive. Unfortunately, they’re not enduring as well as the Egyptian pyramids either thanks to changing weather and time. And they’ve also had a rough history. Back in the 1880s, an Italian explorer actually blew some of them up looking for treasure.
9. The West Edmonton Mall Gets Twice The Visitors of Disneyland
Located in Edmonton, Alberta, a Canadian city with a population of 980,000 people, the West Edmonton Mall gets just over 30 million visitors every year. Pre-pandemic, Disneyland in California got around 18.6 million visitors in a year. Disney World in Florida pulls in around 21 million. Just under six million people visit the Grand Canyon. Blue Ridge Parkway, the road that takes you on a scenic drive through the Appalachian Mountains, gets under 16 million visitors. Eiffel Tower? That gets seven million. With the exception of places like Central Park and the Las Vegas Strip, the West Edmonton Mall is one of the most visited spots in the entire world.
The mall itself covers 5.3 million square feet, has two hotels, a zoo, and 800 stores. Though it’s no longer the largest mall in the world, it’s still the largest in North America. Upwards of 24,000 people work there, making it essentially a small city.
8. China Has More Trademarked Gold Kiwi Fruit than New Zealand
If someone were to ask you where most of the world’s kiwi fruit can be found, what would you say? Even without knowing much about the kiwi crops of the world, there’s a good chance the most popular guess the average person would make is New Zealand. The people who live there are literally called kiwis. They have a bird, even. And yes, it’s where the fruit often comes from. But it’s not the major source these days, especially when it comes to Sungold kiwi.
Officially called Zespri Sungold kiwi, this started in China and then was brought back to New Zealand in 1904. These were the more well known green kiwifruit. In 1997, all growers of kiwifruit in New Zealand forged an alliance called Zespri. Part of their work involved the creation of a new strain of kiwi that had yellow flesh instead of green, was less hairy, and sweeter. It was also their own specific, trademarked brand and there are 9,000 hectares of it growing in the country.
Unfortunately for New Zealand, China is currently growing 12,000 hectares of the golden fruit, all of it illegally. The golden kiwi is owned by Zespri and no one else has the legal right to grow it commercially. Alas, those who grow it in China don’t care.
7. The US Has More Spanish Speakers Than Spain
In the United States, there are 41 million native Spanish speakers. That works out to about 13% of the population, which is fairly significant. Another 11.6 million are bilingual. That’s nearly 53 million in total, which puts the United States ahead of even Spain when it comes to Spanish speakers.
The population of Spain is 47.7 million. Even Colombia only has a population of 48 million. That means the United States has the second highest population of Spanish speakers in the world behind Mexico, which is still far ahead in first with 121 million.
6. Queens, NY Has More Linguistic Diversity Than Almost Anywhere in the World
Diversity is something people are becoming more and more aware of and invested in. The world is full of different cultures, different beliefs and, of course, different languages. There are over 7,000 spoken languages in the world today. Some of them, like English, are spoken by over one billion people. Others are spoken by a mere handful of people.
If you’re the kind of person who likes to be immersed in different cultures and especially languages, it’s possible that the best place in the world for you is Queens, New York. One of the five boroughs of New York City, Queens, has a population of over 2.3 million. Between them, they speak a total of 138 different languages, making it one of the most linguistically diverse places in the world. You can find all the expected ones like Spanish, Chinese, Finnish and so on, but there are some much more obscure ones as well. You can hear people speaking the Mustang language from Tibet near LaGuardia Airport. Head to Rego Park and you may find people speaking Buginese from Indonesia or go to Jackson Heights to hear some K’iche.
Papua, New Guinea recently took the world record for linguistic diversity with 840 languages, so if you really want to go all out, then you could make the trip there. New York City itself is estimated to be home to around 800 languages itself. But Queens is still likely the most “ethnically diverse urban area” in the world.
5. Argentina Has More Psychologists Per Capita Than Anywhere Else
Mental health has, historically, been somewhat overlooked and ignored. Many people, men especially, don’t like to seek help for problems that aren’t immediately physical. Therapy in the United States is big business and many people see doctors and therapists to aid in mental health concerns, from depression to anxiety and more. By the numbers, there are 31.3 licensed psychologists per 100,000 people in America. Is that number high? Low? Well, compared to Argentina, it’s nothing.
Argentina has the most licensed psychologists per 100,000 people in the world at 198, putting them at over six times the rate of the United States. A single therapy session can set you back as little as $10 US. Therapy doesn’t have any kind of stigma in Argentina, it’s just par for the course and part of having a healthy life.
4. Toronto Has the World’s Largest Underground Shopping Space
Shoppings meccas are found all over the world. Places like London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Milan and Los Angeles are all known for being places where jetsetters can drop a huge chunk of cash to buy the latest random thing that people called jetsetters might want.
If you want a truly dramatic shopping experience with 19 miles to walk through a 4 million square foot space, all of which are located underground, head to Toronto, Ontario.
Known as the Path, the world’s largest underground shopping center, features about 1,200 shops and over 5,000 employees. About 200,000 shoppers per day wander along the Path either for shopping or on the way to work as 50 office buildings are also connected underground by the lengthy passageways. You can also use it to get to most of Toronto’s major tourists spots like the CN Tower, the Rogers Center, the Air Canada Center, numerous hotels and more. Basically, it connects the downtown of the city below the downtown of the city.
The entire superstructure dates back to 1900 when an Eaton’s department store was linked to its bargain annex with an underground tunnel. Obviously, things grew from there. But from the surface, it’s all but impossible to tell as the entrances to the Path, of which there are many, are barely noticeable.
3. The USA Has More CCTV Cameras Per Capita Than Anywhere in the World
Privacy concerns have become a big deal in recent times. Your phone tracks you, the government is maybe listening to your calls, cameras are everywhere watching everything. Or are they? This isn’t a single issue, it’s a global one, but the place most commonly associated with it is China. You can find a number of articles online that refer to the country as a “surveillance state.”
China has roughly 200 million surveillance cameras spread throughout the country. That means it has more cameras than anywhere else and that technically flies in the face of the premise here if we’re talking about large numbers in unexpected places, right? Well, that’s where the word “technically” comes in.
The United States has roughly 50 million CCTVs around. But the population of China is over 1.4 billion. The population of the United States is 332 million. That means China has 14.36 cameras per 100 people. The United States has 15.28 cameras. So if you’re afraid that the government is really spying on you, well, you may not be wrong.
2. Cuba Has More Doctors Per Capita Than Anywhere in the World
Covid has made us all more conscious of healthcare and how to access it. But getting good healthcare involves being able to actually get to a doctor and sometimes that’s more easily said than done. For instance, in the United States, there are only 2.6 doctors per 1000 people.
Countries like Canada and Sweden and such are known for their socialized healthcare that is so often boasted about so they must be doing great, right? Well, Canada has 2.4 doctors per 1000 people, so that’s not great, and Sweden only has 4.3. The true top of the pack is Cuba, which has about 9 doctors per 1,000 citizens.
After the revolution in Cuba, the country had around 3,000 doctors, less than 3% of what it is today. The building of its healthcare system has been progressive and extremely successful. Many students come from abroad to train at Cuba’s medical schools and doctors from the country have made an impact the world over, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, including vaccine development.
Medical care in Cuba is considered a fundamental right, and it’s even part of their constitution. Everyone has access there and the doctors are considered some of the best in the world.
1. Canada Has More Donut Shops Per Capita Than Anywhere Else
Canada is known for a few things on the world stage – peacekeepers, beavers, Justin Bieber. So it may be a surprise to learn that the politest people in the world are also holding the world’s largest stock of donut shops.
As much as Americans may love Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Kreme, Canada has Tim Hortons and there are 3,500 of them across the country. In total, the country has five times more donut shops per capita than the United States. In Toronto alone, the city had over 500 shops back in the 1990s.
These days, Canadians consume about a billion donuts per year. With a population of just 38 million, that means every single Canadian is averaging more than two dozen donuts a year.
Some have blamed coffee consumption on the big donut numbers because shops like Tim Hortons and Starbucks are known as much for their coffee as they are for their pastries. And it’s true, Canadians love coffee as well. They may not be the greatest consumers in the world, that honor goes to Finland where the residents drink over 26 pounds per year. But Canada is the only non-European country in the world to crack the top ten coffee drinkers at 14.33 pounds per capita.