Inspired by a tweet from @Cathman:

We thought, our SourceWire News Distribution archive must be a goldmine for entertaining facts and statistics. A quick furtle in the SourceWire news archives (over 4,000 releases in the last year – that statistic is entirely complimentary and does not count towards your five a day) proved we were right.

In fact even in the last seven days there were plenty of newsworthy numbers and nuggets that made us go “well, fancy that”. So we bring you the first in an occasional series, if people like it.

It’s also slightly inspired by “Ten things we didn’t know last week” from the BBC’s Magazine section…”A set of somewhat surprising snippets on SourceWire”? The name might need some work but we hope one of these piques your interest – there are plenty more to be found on our archive, which you can search by keyword…

– only 13% of the UK’s 4.9 million SMEs succeeded in growing their business last year according to the Centre for Enterprise and Economic Development Research
MORE THAN A THIRD OF SMALL BUSINESSES ‘TOO BUSY’ TO FOCUS ON GROWTH

– a typical pancake has over 200 calories (presumably not the first one, though, as everyone knows that doesn’t count)
Fieldandtrek.com Look at Pancake Day Weight Loss

– Mothers are 2.1% more likely to be employed than women with no childcare responsibilities
Personal Assistants Benefiting from Virtual Work

– 43% of Britons said that they read erotic fiction such as Fifty Shades at least occasionally (which means there must be at least 16 of them in the DWPub offices alone)
Marital Affair reports 110% increase as Fifty Shades of Grey Opens at the Weekend

– 6 million people over the age of 50 have a Facebook account
200,000 fans on Facebook for Silversurfers.com

– UK consumers dislike UKIP more than they hate Marmite – to be honest we could have filled another seven snippets with this release alone
NEW RESEARCH REVEALS THE UK’S MOST LOVED (and hated) BRANDS

– it could set you back over £26,000 if you’re unlucky on your US ski trip
COULD YOU AFFORD TO BREAK A LEG IN CANADA?

– the cheese sandwich is under threat, and Anchor Cheddar is embarking on a campaign tour to save it. Yes, there will be free sandwiches.
Anchor Cheddar lights up London to help save the cheese sandwich

– People in Wales are most likely to comfort eat to stave off winter gloom (conclusion: the Anchor cheese sandwich bus from the previous release should really make Cardiff its first stop…)
PEOPLE IN THE EAST MIDLANDS MOST LIKELY TO SEEK SOME SUN TO BEAT THE WINTER BLUES

– in Romania, children dressed as bears form part of New Year celebrations
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER’S GRAND-PRIZE PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION 2015 WINNER ANNOUNCED

Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi’s image of New Year traditions, Comanesti, Romania, winner of the National Geographic Traveller (UK) Travel Photography Competition 2015 – click for press release

With thanks to Tank Top PR, BlueSky PR, APL Media, MaritalAffair.co.uk, whynot!, Field&Trek.com, W1 Office, Forge Communications, Christopher Rickwood, HSL and Six Degrees Limited for their stories. Did you spot a more interesting fact on SourceWire this week? Let us know!

(Please note – we present all these stats and facts in good faith based on the press releases they are contained in. We can’t guarantee any information given but encourage you to contact the original submitters if you need more information!)