The FP Quiz

1. What percentage of the world’s cell-phone accounts are in developing countries?

a) 25 percent    b) 50 percent    c) 75 percent

2. Which country has the most special operations forces?

a) Russia        b) North Korea          c) Israel

3. How much did foreign direct investment worldwide fall in the first quarter of 2009 compared with the same period in 2008?

a) 17 percent    b) 31 percent    c) 44 percent

4. How many people worldwide serve in the military?

a) 10.5 million           b) 20.5 million           c) 40.5 million

5. By how much did opium poppy cultivation change in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2009?

a) up 22 percent       b) remained stable    c) down 22 percent

6. After Mexico, which country has the highest rate of teen births?

a) Czech Republic      b) Turkey       c) United States

7. By what percentage has the number of coastal "dead zones," or areas inhospitable to marine life, increased since 1960?

a) 500 percent    b) 1,500 percent    c) 4,000 percent

8. China is predicted to overtake the United States as the world’s largest automobile market by what year?

a) 2015    b) 2030    c) 205

Answers on the next page.

QUIZ ANSWERS

1) C, 75 percent. In 2009, 3 billion of the world’s 4 billion cell-phone subscriptions were in developing countries, up from one-fourth of the world’s total in 2000, the Economist recently reported. Connecting the poor has major benefits for the developing world. An additional 10 cell phones per 100 people in a developing country raises per capita GDP 8/10 of a percentage point, a recent study found.

2) B, North Korea. Increasingly unable to maintain and fuel its aging tanks and other equipment — and shocked at how easily the United States destroyed Iraq’s tanks — North Korea has concluded that it can’t win a conventional war, the Washington Post recently reported. Thus, the country has rapidly increased its special operations forces to at least 80,000, far more than even the United States’ 51,000. Korean special forces are reportedly being trained in low-cost, low-tech terrorist methods refined by insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, including building improvised explosive devices and roadside bombs.

3) C, 44 percent. Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows for the first quarter of 2009 plunged to nearly half what they were during the same period in 2008, according to the 2009 World Investment Report, published by the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development. Even rapidly developing countries took nosedives, with quarter-on-quarter FDI inflows falling 21 percent in China, 30 percent in Pakistan, and 39 percent in Brazil. The report says to expect a slow recovery in 2010, however, and acceleration in 2011.

4) B, 20.5 million. Worldwide in 2009, there were 20.5 million people — or one out of every 330 — serving in the armed forces, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. There are also an estimated 49.8 million reservists and 7 million serving in paramilitary units. China had the biggest military, with 2.2 million in the armed services.

5) C, down 22 percent. Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan fell just over a fifth from 157,000 hectares in 2008 to 123,000 in 2009, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The most noteworthy drop was in the country’s unstable Helmand province, where cultivation dropped 33 percent from 2008 to 2009. The turnaround is attributed in part to stronger leadership from the governor, more effective counternarcotics operations, and an improvement in the incentives for growing legal crops.

6) C, United States. Of every 1,000 American females ages 15 to 19 in 2005, 50 had a baby, more than three times the OECD average of 15.5. Of the OECD countries, only Mexico, with 66 births per 1,000, was higher. Japan and South Korea had the lowest rates, both at just 3.7, according to the OECD. And the high U.S. rate isn’t due to fewer abortions. The United States is a leader at 20 abortions per 1,000 females ages 15 to 19 in 2004, compared with, for example, Germany’s 2003 rate of 7.2 per 1,000, according to the group Advocates for Youth.

7) C, 4,000 percent. The number of "dead zones" has grown rapidly over the last 50 years, from only 10 documented cases in 1960 to 405 in 2008, according to a World Resources Institute report. Dead zones are often caused by the runoff of nutrients found in man-made fertilizers that bloat oxygen-absorbing algae; as the algae increase in size, the water’s oxygen levels decrease. Major dead zones litter the world’s large bodies of water, including the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Chesapeake Bay, affecting biodiversity and decimating local fishing industries.

8) B, 2030. China is forecast to add an additional 270 million vehicles to its roads by 2030, making it home to about 30 percent of the world’s cars, McKinsey reports. If those vehicles run on traditional gasoline, China will need to import an additional 6.2 billion barrels of oil, making its cars the producer of 20 percent of the world’s passenger vehicle CO2 emissions.