The Pocket World in Figures, considered to be the statisticians’ bible, will be published today, but reports about its findings have already been printed in the British media.

So, for once, Malta is on top of the world but, unfortunately, it has happened in a category that should not make us proud.

The figures show that Maltese 15-year-old boys top the world list ahead of Holland and Britain. The girls are second to Britain, and are followed by Holland, Denmark and Germany.

There is another sector in which Malta is high on the list, and it is yet another result that is not something to be proud of. Maltese 15-year-old girls are in fact the second fattest in the world. Only the United States precede us, and we are followed by Canada and Britain.

The figures published refer to statistics supplied by 192 countries.

Other statistics that are published in the book place Ukraine on top in both sexes when it comes to watching television, with Israel, Portugal and Latvia high up in the ranking.

Among other results, one finds that Calgary in Canada is the healthiest city in the world in which to live, Switzerland has the highest quality of life and that the United Kingdom receives the world’s largest number of asylum applications, 110,000, that is 30,000 more than the United States in second place.

China has the highest rate of contraception use. North Korea spends the most on military defence in proportion of the GDP, France hosts the most tourists (77 million) and Zambians have the lowest life expectancy, just 32.4 years.

There are more cases of diabetes per head of population in the United Arab Emirates, while Botswana has the highest rate of AIDS deaths. The Czechs drink the most beer.