WASHINGTON -- If you ever have wondered about the average ATM fee or the percentage of children living with their grandparents or how popular regular exercise is, the government has the book for you.
The 1998 edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States was issued Thursday by the Commerce Department. It is a collection of thousands of tables and charts and bits of information to satisfy just about any query.Thumbing through the Abstract, you can learn that one in three people registering to vote does so at a motor vehicle office; the average fee for using another bank's automated teller machine is about $1; and people who enjoy watching wildlife outspend hunters by more than 2 to 1.
As of last spring, the volume reports, 62 million Americans age 18 and over had Internet access, either at home or at work.
Glenn King, chief of the Census Bureau's Statistical Compendia Branch, noted that the 1998 Abstract includes nearly 100 new tables.
Some of the new information includes employment and wages in the information technology industry, criminal victimization at school and breast-feeding of infants.
One new table indicates that the more education women have the less likely they are to have more than one husband.
The data, collected by the National Center for Health Statistics, show that 3.8 percent of women who did not complete high school had four or more husbands. For high school graduates, the share with four partners drops to 3.0 percent. Among those who attended college 2.0 percent had four or more husbands and that fell to 1.0 percent for those with college degrees.
Overall, 20.2 percent of women who graduated from college never married, compared with 17.1 percent who attended college, 8.7 percent of high school graduates and 8.6 percent of those who did not finish high school.
Like most data in the Statistical Abstract, the information is presented without analysis, and the newly added tables do not include similar figures for men.
Another addition to the Abstract, based on Census Bureau data, shows that from 1997 on, 5.5 percent of children lived with their grandparents, a share that has been rising steadily. It was just 3.6 percent in 1980 and by 1990 was 4.9 percent.
That includes children whose parents were also living in the older folks' home and those living with grandparents without their parents present.
New data on adults who engage in regular physical activity came from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
That center reported that 20.1 percent of Americans took part in some regular activity -- 21.5 percent of men and 18.9 percent of women.
Physical activity was more common among college graduates -- 23.5 percent -- than those who did not finish high school -- 15.6 percent.
The 1998 Statistical Abstract is available from the National Technical Information Service, $33 for the softbound cover and $39 for the hardbound, by calling 1-800-553-NTIS. It is also available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, $38 for the softbound cover and $44 for the hardbound, by calling 202-512-1800.