Back To School Fun Facts

The new school year is here!

If you're looking for some carpool line conversation starters or facts to keep the kids entertained at the breakfast table, look no further than these fun back-to-school facts:

Crayons

According to a study done by Yale University, the smell of a crayon ranks #18 on the list of most recognizable scents for adults.

In the Color Census 2000, blue was voted the favorite color out of 120 choices. Bringing up the rear? Tan, tumbleweed and spring green.

By the time a child celebrates their tenth birthday, they will have worn down 730 crayons. Combined, children in the U.S. spend 6.3 billion hours coloring each year. That's about 28 minutes per day, per child.

Cutting back

An American Express survey says 67 percent of parents say they will need to make trade-offs to afford back-to-school expenses, with plans to dine out less (53 percent) and spend less on entertainment (39 percent), as well as cut spending on their own wardrobe (37 percent) in order to splurge on luxuries such as braces ($2,000) and computers/laptops ($830). 

The National Retail Federation (NRF) is forecasting total back-to-school (K-12) and back-to-college sales of $68.8 billion, an increase of 2.5 percent over last year. Spending per family is expected to decline in both cases as parents replenished many of their children’s needs last year and 43.7 percent said the economy is forcing them to simply spend less in general.

Back-to-school clothes

In August 2010, families spent $7.4 billion at family clothing stores.

Top three supply purchases

In Capital One's 11th annual back-to-school shopping survey, both teens and parents surveyed ranked traditional supplies such as notebooks and pencils, clothes and backpacks/totes as their top three purchases.

Students, Teachers, Diplomas

According to the U.S Census Bureau, 77 million children and adults were enrolled in school throughout the country in October 2009 from nursery school to college.

In 2009, 11.2 million school-age children (5 to 17) spoke a language other than English at home; 8 million of these children spoke Spanish at home.

In 2009, there were 7.2 million teachers in the United States. Nearly 3 million taught at the elementary and middle school level. The remainder included those teaching at the postsecondary, secondary, preschool, kindergarten levels, special education and other teachers or instructors.

About 3.2 million high school diplomas and 3.4 million college degrees are expected to be awarded in the 2011-12 school year.

Internet access

In 1995, approximately 50 percent of American schools had Internet access. Today, that number is 100 percent.

Since 1903, more than 120 billion Crayola crayons have been sold. Stack those end to end and they would circle the Earth 200 times. Every year Crayola manufactures 600 million colored pencils, 465 million markers, 110 million sticks of chalk and 1.5 million bottles of paint. Crayola crayons are available in 120 colors including 23 reds, 20 greens, 19 blues, 16 purples, 14 oranges, 11 browns, 8 yellows, 2 grays, 2 coppers, 2 blacks, 1 white, 1 gold and 1 silver.

Pencils

Pencils can write just about anywhere - in zero gravity, upside down, and under water. The average pencil can write 45,000 words and draw a line 35 miles long.  More than 2 billion pencils are used in the United States every year.

SMART Boards

SMART Technologies, the maker of the SMART board, says its whiteboards are used in more than 1.5 million K-12 classrooms and by more than 30 million students globally.