Percentage of Gen Zers who said they have met someone online who has become a close friend, according to a survey by Yubo: 75

Percentage who also said they feel more comfortable making friends online: 59

Source: Yubo.

Percentage of Americans who took on holiday debt this season, according to research by Lending Tree: 35

Average debt taken on: $1,549

Percentage of those taking on debt who expect to take five months or more to pay it off, up from 28% a year ago: 37

Percentage of those who took on holiday debt who didn't plan to do so: 63

Source: Lending Tree.

Number of Lego bricks sold each year: 70 billion

Number of minifigures produced all-time: 4 billion

Number of hours spent playing with Lego annually: 5 billion

Source: Lego.

Percentage of working adults in the U.S. who have or have had a mental illness in 2021, according to the results of a survey by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: 25

Percentage of the country’s population, or more than 46 million people, who met the criteria for a substance use disorder: 16

Number of weeks annually that the typical worker misses for illness, injury or reasons other than vacation and holidays: 3 (15 days)

Number of weeks annually that workers with substance use disorders miss: nearly 5 (24.6 days)

Source: National Safety Council.

Percentage of men who say they have fallen in love with someone they weren't initially attracted to, according to a survey by Match.com: 44

Percentage of women who say the same: 52

Source: Match.com.

Percentage of employees who would feel better about themselves if their boss were more grateful (and 81% would work harder), according to research by Halo: 70

Percentage who agree that a grateful boss is more likely to be successful: 95

Percentage of employees who said they would stay at their company longer if they felt more appreciation from their boss: 53

Source: Halo.

Percentage of Americans who feel that 2023 will be the hottest year on record, according to an Ipsos survey: 52

Rank of the U.S. on the list of countries with the highest percentage of citizens expecting a natural disaster to hit a major city in their country (65%), trailing only Indonesia and Turkey -- 20 points higher than the global average of 45%: 3

Percentage of Americans who believe people will become more tolerant of each other, which, while lower than the global average, still ranks above Japan (12%) and France (17%): 27

Source: Ipsos Public Affairs.

Percentage of workers who say work processes enable them to be productive, according to a survey by Qualtrics: 65

Percentage who say their technology helps them be productive: 63

Source: Qualtrics.

Percentage of women who are either expecting to retire later than originally planned or don't believe they will ever be able to retire because of inflation, compared to 47% of men, according to a Nationwide Retirement Institute survey of employer-sponsored retirement plan participants and sponsors: 62

Of those expecting to delay or cancel their retirement, percentage who say they are doing so because they had or have to financially support a family member or friend as a result of inflation: 15

Source: Nationwide.

Percentage of Americans who say Martin Luther King Jr. Day is an essential holiday for remembering the importance of U.S. civil rights, according to a survey by Reputation Leaders: 75

Percentage of U.S. adults nationally who agree that civil rights are as important today as at any time in the last 30 years: 80

Source: Reputation Leaders Ltd.

Idle Thought

"The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism." -- Wole Soyinka, playwright, poet, Nobel Prize laureate (1934-)

Ranks of Dwayne Johnson, Rihanna, Beyonce, Eminem and Kevin Hart as the celebrities Americans would most like to see in a Super Bowl advertisement, according to TMA: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Ranks of Rihanna, Eminem, Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Snoop Dogg as the artists Americans would most like to see perform at the halftime show: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Source: TMA (The Marketing Arm).

Among workers whose annual income is between $40,000 and $79,999, rank of a change in health coverage as the main monetary hurdle preventing them from changing jobs, according to a survey by Bestcolleges.com: 1

Among low-income workers, rank of transportation costs to job search or interview as the main monetary hurdle preventing them from changing jobs: 1

Source: BestColleges.

On average, the number social media posts made per day by an 11-year-old, according to a study by Qustodio: 26

Percentage of minors between the ages of 9 and 16 who have a personal profile on at least one social network (growing to 83% by age 15 or 16): 45

Percentage of minors who know how to change their privacy settings: 46

Source: Qustodio.

Percentage of Gen Zers in the United States who said they believe they will be able to afford to buy a house or apartment in the future, despite mounting evidence of a housing affordability crisis across the country, according to a survey by Yubo: 93

Percentage of respondents who said they feel a college degree is necessary to "be successful and achieve the life [they] want": 36

Percentage who said they want to get married someday, while 81% also said they want to be parents in the future: 80

Source: Yubo.

Percentage of employees who are satisfied with their pay, a drop from 67% a year ago, according to a 27-country survey by Qualtrics: 61

Percentage who believe their actual pay is tied to performance: 50

Percentage more likely that an employee who is satisfied with their pay is to stay in a job for three or more years vs. an employee who is not satisfied: 13

Source: Qualtrics.

Percentage of the sandwich generation -- Americans who are raising or financially supporting children and also have at least one living parent age 65-plus -- who are either "very stressed" or "somewhat stressed" about affording their family's financial obligations over the next 10 years, according to a survey by Policygenius: 66

Percentage who expect supporting their parent(s) will cost just as much or even more than supporting their children over the next five years: 52

Percentage of the sandwich generation that has provided some kind of assistance to their parent(s) in the past 12 months: 52

Source: Policygenius.

Percentage of Americans who said they've been victims of identity theft this year, up from 40% last year, according to Debt.com's annual identity theft poll: 45

Percentage who said they were "surprised to find out they were a target of identity theft" (down from 84% last year): 38

Source: Debt.com.

Among the 30% of workers who are "quiet quitting" (doing the minimum requirements of one's job and putting in no more time, effort or enthusiasm than absolutely necessary), the percentage who say that their work-life balance has improved, according to a survey by the LendingTree: 57

Percentage of quiet quitters who said they were already doing so before they learned about the term, though 26% said they started checking out after learning about the movement: 59

Percentage who feel that setting boundaries with work has proved beneficial and who say they are more engaged at work than in the past: 40

Source: LendingTree.

Percentage of users of ad-supported over-the-top media services -- media that is offered directly to consumers via the internet, such as HBO Max and Disney+ -- who say they often click on ads and buy things they see advertised, according to research by Parks Associates: 23

Estimated number of U.S. internet households that use at least one advertising-based OTT streaming service: 37 million

Percentage of U.S. internet households this represents: 83

Source: Parks Associates.

Idle Thought

"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime. Ask the infantry and ask the dead." -- Ernest Hemingway, writer (1899-1961)

Percentage of Americans who said they would make resolutions for 2023, according to an Ipsos poll: 70

Percentage who said they were hopeful to leave 2022 behind, saying that it was a bad year for their family: 50

Percentage who said it was a bad year for the United States: 80

Source: Ipsos.

Percentage of Americans who consume alcohol who said they could be motivated to participate in "Dry January" in 2023, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Go Brewing: 79

Ranks of a desire to be healthier, losing weight and the ability to focus better on personal or work goals on the list of motivators for staying sober in January: 1, 2, 3

Source: Go Brewing.

Percentage of workers with a good work-life balance who are willing to go above and beyond for their employer, according to a survey by Qualtrics: 63

Percentage of workers with a poor work-life balance who are willing to go above and beyond for their employer: 29

Source: Qualtrics.

Average number of minutes that kids ages 4 to 18 spend per day watching TikTok videos, according to data from parental control software maker Qustodio: 91

Percentage of kids ages 4 to 18 who say they use TikTok for educational purposes: 25

Among those who claim to use the platform for educational purposes, percentage who say it helped them do their homework: 69

Source: Qustodio.

Percentage of commercial time for the 2023 Super Bowl that is already sold, according to a survey by The Marketing Arm: 95

Average price for a 30-second commercial spot: $7 million

Source: The Marketing Arm.

Percentage of currently enrolled undergraduate students with federal and/or private loans who have considered dropping out of school due to the financial burden of college, according to a survey from BestColleges.com: 44

Percentage of student borrowers who say they have had to make sacrifices in life to lessen the financial burden of college: 66

Percentage who chose to take some online courses so they could more easily work: 34

Source: BestColleges.

Increase in credit card debt during 2021, according to WalletHub: $86 billion

Projected credit card debt increase for 2022: $110 billion

Source: WalletHub.

Among Americans with pets who are planning to buy a home within the next year, percentage who consider their pets' needs just as important, if not more so, than their own needs or those of their family, according to a survey conducted by Realtor.com: 82

Percentage of prospective buyers with pets who admit that they would forgo buying their dream home if it didn't accommodate their pets: 72

Source: Realtor.com.

Amoung people with trouble sleeping who are currently taking or have taken a prescription sleep medication, percentage who believe there is stigma with having insomnia, according to a survey by Idorsia Pharmaceuticals: 45

Percentage who believe there is a stigma with treating insomia: 46

Source: Idorsia Pharmaceuticals U.S.

Ranks of interior painting, carpet cleaning and landscaping on the most commonly completed tasks performed by sellers before listing their home for sale, according to research commissioned by Zillow: 1, 2, 3

Percentage of home sellers who believe the improvement projects they completed to prepare their home for sale helped their home to sell: 74

Source: Zillow.

Idle Thought

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewehere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." -- Bill Watterson, comic strip artist