1,000,000: The number of people whose domestic water needs will be met by a £200 million desalination plant Thames Water is hoping to build in Newham, London. The plant will use estuary water, which is only a quarter as salty as the sea and will produce 150,000 cubic metres of water per day, but will function only as an emergency back-up during drought. Around one per cent of the world’s drinking water comes from desalination.

40%: The percentage of all drinking occasions among men that are considered to be binge drinking, according to Alcohol Concern. (The figure is 22 per cent for women). Binge drinking is defined by the US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) as reaching a blood alcohol level of 0.08 per cent or above, i.e. for every 100 millilitres of blood in your body, there are at least 80 milligrams of alcohol present. The “typical” male reaches this level after five or more standard drinks in two hours and the “typical” female after four or more. A standard drink translates to a small glass of wine, one bottle of American beer, or about two-thirds of a British pint.

9,600: The number of residential care home places for elderly and disabled people lost in the year to April. There are now 486,000 places available in total, 89,000 fewer than in 1996.

4,000,000: the number of people over the age of 85, the group most likely to need care, the UK can expect to have by 2051, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The number of people over 65 will grow from 9.3 million to 16.8 million over the same period and spending on care for older people will increase from 1.4 per  cent to 1.8 per cent of GDP.

3.5%: The percentage of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions accounted for by the moving of food before it reaches customers, says the pressure group Transport 2000. But local isn’t always best. Tomatoes grown in heated hothouses in the UK contribute so much to CO2 emissions that it is better to import tomatoes from Spain, where they grow in the sun.

70%: The percentage of Ghana’s health professionals that have emigrated to the developed world.

£250,000: The cost of training a British medical student to become a doctor.

£10,000: The cost of preparing a refugee doctor to practise.

2: The number of large glasses of Coke that is the calorific equivalent of the rise in Europeans’ daily energy intake over the past 30 years, says Robert Madelin, the European Commission’s director-general for health and consumer protection. In calories the rise has been 300 kilocalories to 3400 kcal per day. 

10%: The percentage of Europe’s health costs spent on obesity.