50 Crazy Facts About Residents From Countries Around The World

71% of Americans aged 17 to 24 are ineligible to join the military, primarily because they are too overweight or too poorly educated, or have a record of serious crime or drug abuse.

2. Citizens of Monaco are not allowed to gamble at the Casino in Monte Carlo. Passports are checked to enforce this.

3. Most Asians suffer from lactose intolerance and humans, in general, become lactose intolerant after weaning. It’s only with the advent of agriculture that some races were able to properly digest milk and other dairy products even if they are already adults.

4. 61% of Americans dread the holidays due to increased spending. 75% of parents with children under the age of 18 fear disappointing their children during the holidays.

5. French preschools serve four-course lunches (including a cheese course) to educate them in taste and stimulate their senses.

A group of Austrians who have been nicknamed "Arsenic Eaters" used to ingest doses far beyond the lethal dose of arsenic trioxide without any apparent harm. In 1851, the medical world learned about the practice of arsenic eating among peasants who ate up small doses initially and gradually built up to 300-400mg as a mithridate to help enable strenuous work at high altitudes in the Alps.

7. In the 1800s, Americans drank, on average, 90 bottles of whiskey per year, or 1.7 bottles per week. This was because, at that time, whiskey was sold at 25 cents a gallon, making it cheaper than wine, beer, tea, coffee, and even milk.

8. Germans celebrate Father's day by having "oddly dressed men pulling wagons filled with beer into parks and drinking until they pass out."

9. If you are a Singaporean citizen above 21, your organs will be automatically donated upon death.

10. About 10% of Americans have never left the state they were born and 40% of the Americans have never left the country.

25% of Jamaican citizens claim Irish ancestry, the second-largest reported ethnic group in Jamaica after African ancestry.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

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.

17. 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.

18. 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).

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

20. 96% of Americans use automatic cars while 80% of Europeans use manual.

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

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

23. 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.

24. 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.

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