Soap is famed. It has a magazine named for it and has limericks written about it,*but until this week no one apparently had ever fully investigated world soap statistics. This week Soap, a monthly magazine, publishes what it claims is the first such survey. Among its findings:
¶ World production: 10,000,000,000 Ib. per year (of which the U. S. makes and uses about one-third).
¶Per capita consumption: U. S. 25 Ib.; The Netherlands 24 Ib.; United Kingdom 20 Ib.; Japan 7 Ib.; Brazil 6.8 Ib.; world average 6.6 Ib.; Russia 5.7 Ib. (compared to less than 2 Ib. 20 years ago); British India, 4 oz.; China, 2 oz.
¶Uses classified: World. 92% laundry soap; U. S. 85% laundry soap, 12% toilet soap, 3% miscellaneous.
*Sample: A lassy named Aberthwaite, Joan On lim’ricks was especially keen, But she never could cope With Lim’ricks on soap For lim’ricks are dirty, soap clean.
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