Germany Stats

Mood: 3rd quartile
Noise: Eyes on the Prize by civil rights demonstrators

I am a nerd. Over the last four hours I've been combing through databases for statistical information about Germany. In my daily life I find myself probing for generalizations about German culture, but have a persistent feeling of unease with such subjective impressions. I was hoping that the concrete world of numbers would be helpful. Here are some of the juicy bits that caught my attention.

-62% distrust church institutions (compared to 28% in the US)
-29% discuss politics frequently (highest % in the world).
-34% are not proud of their nationality (topped only by Japan at 36%)
-ranks 2nd in beer consumption (just behind Ireland), but 13th in overall alcohol consumption
- 35% of Germans smoke
-has the greatest number of websites per 1000 people
-78% of Germans over 14 years old read a newspaper daily (42% in the US)