Author Archives: FactCheck.org

Nearly 41 percent of U.S. teenagers aged 16 to 17 report having tried marijuana at least once, and 6 percent say they have tried cocaine. Source: National Center for Health Statistics

As one of the world’s largest office buildings, The Pentagon has three times the floor space of the Empire State Building in New York. Source: The Pentagon

Despite 17.5 miles of corridors it takes only seven minutes to walk between any two points in the Pentagon. Source: The Pentagon

In 2007, nearly four in ten (39.7 percent) of all births were to unmarried women, more than double the proportion in 1980 (18.4 percent). Source: National Center for Health Statistics

From the 1990 Census to the 2000 Census, the percentage of Americans who said they worked from home went up 0.3 percent. Source: Census Bureau

From the 1990 Census to the 2000 Census, there was little change in the transportation Americans used to get to work: The percentage who drove alone went up 2.5 percent, and those using public transportation went down 0.5 percent. Source: Census Bureau

Cherrapunji Assam, India, has amassed several world records for precipitation. In two years, 1860 and 1861, it recorded 1,605.05 inches. Source: NOAA

The world record for the amount of rain to fall in 1 minute is 1.5 inches in Barot Guadeloupe, West Indies, on Nov. 26, 1970. Source: NOAA

The most precipitation to fall in one year in the U.S. is 739 inches, which was recorded in Kukui on the Hawaiian island of Kauai from December 1981 to December 1982. Source: NOAA’s National Weather Service

On July 16, 1914, a U.S. record of 7 inches of rain in 30 minutes fell in Cambridge, Ohio. Source: NOAA’s National Weather Service