37 Things You Didn’t Know About Residents of Various Countries

Swiss people are usually subtitled in German TV because their accent is so thick it is virtually unintelligible by speakers of Standard German. Swiss on the other hand have no issue understanding Standard German.

2. Australians don't traditionally celebrate Halloween, and its increasing popularity there is often considered to be an example of encroaching American cultural imperialism, despite it being a millennia-old Celtic European holiday.

3. Asians are more likely to die from heart failure on the 4th of the month than they are any other day of the month (7.3% death rate above expected), due to increased stress from Tetraphobia (their cultural fear of the number 4). This has been termed the Baskerville effect.

4. In May 1981 the citizens of Naphlion, Greece awoke to find small green frogs falling from the sky. The Greek Meteorological Institute surmised they were picked up by a very strong wind since the frog species was native to North Africa.

5. The average Mexican citizen works an average of 2,255 hours a year, while the average Danish citizen works only 1,410 hours per year.

Americans sought comfort TV after 9/11 and watched so much Food Network that the station had to restructure itself to appeal to a general audience. This led to the creation and subsequent rise of reality cooking shows like Chopped and Iron Chef USA.

7. The average citizen of Liechtenstein doesn't even lock their door because crime in the country is so low. The last murder was 10 years ago (as of 2007).

8. Any Brazilian citizen can have a sex change operation for free because it is a constitutional right there.

9. 96% of Americans use automatic cars while 80% of Europeans use manual.

10. Indian housewives hold $600 billion worth of gold - more than the reserves of the USA, IMF, Switzerland, and Germany combined.

The French have twice attempted to decimalize time, with 10 hour days, 100 minutes in an hour, and 100 seconds in a minute.

12. In the 1960s the Zambian Space program tried to send a mission to Mars, incurring hijinks such as training astronauts by rolling them down hills in oil drums as well as promising UNESCO that they would not indoctrinize the native Martians.

13. Many Asians wear surgical masks not only to stop viruses from spreading but also because women want to avoid having to put on make-up before hitting the streets. Pop stars, actresses, and models also wear them to avoid getting recognized in public and getting caught by paparazzi.

14. Citizens in Estonia are given an ID card that includes a public/private key pair allowing users to cryptographically sign digital documents.

15. The citizens of the Greek island of Lesbos have sued lesbians (homosexual women) in Greek court for “appropriating their national identity”. The island's inhabitants requested that the court ban the use of the word lesbian as a term to describe gay women.

Citizens of the Dutch city Zwolle are colloquially known as Bluefingers due to the 1682 sale of the town church's bells to the town of Kampen. After finding the bells too damaged for use, Kampen paid Zwolle entirely in pennies and fingers of people in Zwolle turned blue after counting so much change.

17. Nearly 8% of Asian men are descended from Genghis Khan. That’s nearly 350 million men with one common ancestor.

18. 85% of Belarusian children are deemed to be Chernobyl victims. They carry “genetic markers” that could affect their health at any time and can be passed on to the next generation.

19. An Indian will spend one-fifth of their life's earnings on a wedding ceremony.

20. An African is extraordinarily genetically diverse. An Ethiopian person will likely have less in common genetically with a Sudanese person than they do with people from other continents.

The tradition among Bolivian Aymara women of wearing bowler hats began in the early 20th century. It's thought to have originated when a consignment from Europe for railway workers was found to contain hats that were too small.

22. 30% of Americans don't drink alcohol at all, 60% drink less than 1 drink a week. The top 10% drink approximately 74 drinks a week.

23. Between 1966 and 1970, citizens of Oman were forbidden by the Sultan (Said bin Taimur) to smoke in public, play football, wear sunglasses, or speak to anyone for more than 15 minutes.

24. After Albanian citizens lost approximately $1.2 billion (~$400 per capita) to Ponzi schemes in 1997, some of the losers started protesting against the government. The protests ultimately turned into a more than the 6-month civil war that toppled the government and killed 2000 to 3800 people.

25. Residents of Shitterton, a hamlet in England, clubbed together in 2010 to replace the town sign with one carved in 1.5 tons of stone to stop people from stealing it.