Travel-related trivia – factoids to send your pub quiz opponents packing

Are French air traffic controllers really responsible for a third of all European flight delays? Does breathing in New Delhi’s noxious air equate to smoking 7.7 cigarettes a day, or an emphysema-inducing 45? And who knows exactly how many sheep there are for every New Zealander. Not Google, that’s for sure. Travel trivia is a mix of fact, fiction and guesswork, although the following snippets of wisdom are definitely true – I found them on the internet.

Europe’s smallest country, Monaco, is about the same size as Cheung Chau – but 6,209 Hong Kongs would fit inside Russia.

Eight of the world’s 10 fattest populations live in South Pacific island nations.

The highest point in the Maldives, the world’s flattest country, is a man-made 5.1 metre mound located at the eighth hole of Villingili Golf Course.

Saint Lucia is the only country named after a woman and Burkina Faso means “Land of Honest People”. The capital of the African nation, Ouagadougou, translates as “You are welcome here at home with us”.

Ten per cent of all photographs ever taken were snapped in the past 12 months – and more people die as a result of taking selfies than from shark attacks.

In 2017, a Japanese rail company apologised after one of its trains departed 20 seconds early – which would be enough time to get a third of the way into the world’s shortest passenger flight, between Westray and Papa Westray, in Scotland. The record for the fastest trip between the two Orkney Islands, a 2.7km hop, is 53 seconds.