New figures reveal all about ‘average’ Belgian

22 April 2005
 
BRUSSELS – Every year the average Belgian munches down 2 kilos of crisps, has sex 139 times and throws out 225 kilos of trash.
 
These and other fascinating figures were revealed in a four-page spread Friday in French-language daily La Derniere Heure.
 
The 2 kilo per annum crisp figure is partially explained by the fact that as many as nine out of 10 Belgians eat the fried snack, although preferred flavours vary by age.
 
Those younger than six and older than 35 go for salt and paprika, while 9-to-16 year-olds are more tempted by new flavours.
 
And what do people prefer to wash down all those chips with? Mainly carbonated beverages and other soft drinks, downing some 267 million litres per capita a year.
 
Among alcoholic drinks, the average Belgian consumes 96 litres of beer a year and 23 litres of wine.
 
Some 19 percent of those aged 15 and over have never touched alcohol, while 12% drink every day and 7 percent are alcoholics.
 
In the bedroom, Belgians get less action than their French counterparts (who have sex 167 times a year), the European league champions. But they at least beat Spain, which ranks at the bottom with 121 times a year.
 
One Belgian out of three has had a romantic relationship with a co-worker, and the proportion of the country’s singles and married persons is almost equally split at 4,328,421 and 4,623,588, respectively. However, ths singles figure includes minors.
 
When Belgians are not having sex, they sleep eight hours and one minute a night. That’s a whole nine more minutes of shut eye than Swedes, who get the least sleep of any Europeans.
 
Among other interesting revelations, the newspaper reported that  Peeters is Belgium’s most common surname (outranking Janssens and Maes), seven out of 10 Belgians do sport regularly, and the average Belgian has EUR 70,000 in cash or savings.
 
Those who often complain about the wet Belgian weather should also bear in mind that only 198 days of rain were recorded at the weather centre in Brussels’ Uccle commune last year, compared to 224 rainy days in 2000.
 
[Copyright Expatica 2005]

Subject: Belgian News