The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2025

by Sarah Janssen

#1 New York Times Bestseller! Get thousands of facts at your fingertips with this essential sports, pop culture, science and technology, U.S. history and government, world geography, business, and so much more.The World Almanac® is America’s bestselling reference book of all time, with more than 83 million copies sold. For more than 150 years, this compendium of information has been the authoritative source for school, library, business, and home. The 2025 edition of The World Almanac reviews the biggest events of 2024 and will be your go-to source for questions on any topic in the upcoming year. Praised as a “treasure trove of political, economic, scientific and educational statistics and information” by The Wall Street Journal, The World Almanac and Book of Facts will answer all of your trivia needs effortlessly.Features Special Election 2024: The World Almanac provides a comprehensive look at the entire 2024 election process, from the roller coaster of the early primaries to state and county presidential voting results and coverage of House, Senate, and gubernatorial races.2024—Top 10 News  The editors of The World Almanac list the top stories that held the world's attention in 2024. 2024—Year in  Hundreds of pages of trivia and statistics that are essential for any sports fan, featuring complete coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and the 2024 World Series. 2024—Year in  Striking full-color images from around the world in 2024, covering news, entertainment, science, and sports. 2024—Offbeat News  The World Almanac editors found some of the strangest news stories of the year. World Almanac Editors' Time  The World Almanac lists the items that most came to symbolize the year 2024. The World at a  This annual feature of The World Almanac provides a quick look at the surprising stats and curious facts that define the changing world. Other More new data to help understand the world, including housing costs, immigration statistics, public schools and test scores, streaming TV and movie ratings, and much more.  

Genres: History, Reference, Nonfiction, Science

1008 pages, Paperback

Published December 10, 2024

About the author

Sarah Janssen is the senior editor of The World Almanac and Book of Facts, The World Almanac for Kids, and other diverse titles. She is the co-author of Under the Covers and between the Sheets, a book of facts and trivia about the world’s greatest books. Sarah lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Reviews

[David]

I get this book annually. I'm a little crazy and actually READ this. Well, at least a LOT of it.
The Chronology of Events starts things off. It goes Nov 1 2023 through Oct 31 2024. The book normally is on the bookshelves in early/mid November, but this edition came out a tiny bit late, so all of the Nov 2024 Election Results are in here.

I like all the historical reminders of what just happened in the last year...
In the 23 page Chronology section, each month's events have:
- National
- International
- General

This is followed by the Obituaries. Always sad, but I read every name.
About 300 famous people: government leaders, scientists, actors, writers, inventors, sports figures, etc.

Another favorite section for me is Astronomy:
- A few pages stating all the big celestial highlights that will happen
- Meteorites, Morning/Evening Stars, Telescopes, Constellations, Eclipses
Galaxies, Solar System, Latest planet data and extra solar objects

Sure, I could ask "Siri, what is the deepest point in the Pacific?" and get individual facts.

But this book has table after table of data. It is when you see data sitting next to similar data types that you can see trends and draw conclusions.

And these nearly 1,000 pages are non-debatable facts.
The font size is rather small, and on rare years I have bought the larger size book at about 2x the price. But I usually go back to my standard 5.5" x 8" classic version.

I will go ahead and give my annual 5* score and mark this book 'read', but it is a reference book that I keep extremely handy and pull out regularly throughout the year.

Random highlights:
- Dow Jones historical averages
- Passenger car production in the US by make/model
- US Occupation employment projections
- Casualties in all wars of the U.S.

- Adult LGBT and Transgender Population by State
- - Sexual orientation and gender identity by age group
- - Sexual Orientation Among US Adults
- - Sexual Behavior of Opposite-Sex and Same-Sex Partners
- - Contraceptive use in the US
- - Sexual Activity of US High School Students 2021
- - Sexual Violence Against US High School Students 2021

Books
- Best-Selling Books 2023
- Most Challenged Books 2023
- Nobel in Literature - historical all
- Pulitzers - historical all
- Booker - historical all
- Newbery - historical all
- Caldecott - historical all
- National Book Award - historical all
- Misc (Nebula, Lambda, etc.)

- the year in pictures
- Academy awards - historical all
- Longest Running Broadway shows
-: basic laws of physics
- Largest trees in the US
- US Public High School Graduation Rates
- US History Chronology of events
- States of the US summary
- US Population by Race, Hispanic Origin, and age
- World History
- World Adherents of Religions by Continental Area
- Most popular US First Names by Decade (latest: Noah and Olivia)
- Nations of the world
- All the sports stats you need to know. I'm sure the upcoming new Almanac will have all the Paris Olympics results.

Great Index!

I re-iterate the value of looking stuff up in a book like this. When you ask the internet a specific question, you get a specific answer. I really REALLY like how the answers you find here are surrounded by more facts/data that is similar in nature. I find that 100% of the time I explore +/- a paragraph or page surrounding the answer I sought, thus gaining more/deeper insight to my original question that I had.

Very solid 5*

[Michael Reilly]

I have loved the World Almanac since I was a kid.

Massachusetts voted overwhelmingly for Harris. 29 of the 30 largest cities or towns voted for Harris. Fall River voted for Trump, 14,843 to 13,981. I have no explanation for that. (P.26)

Andrew Carruthers, who pioneered the cosmetic use of Botox,
Gaston Glock who invented the Glock pistol,
Bob Kelly, a car dealer who published the Kelly Blue Book,
Patti McGee, the first women's National Skateboard Champion,
all died in 2024 (P. 62)

Two surprising thing I cannot explain.

1. Dubai International Airport has the most passenger traffic in the world, 87 million passengers in 2023. Heathrow is second with 79 million. (Could this be Hajj related?) (P.117)

2. A standard barrel for fruits, vegetables and other dry commodities is 7,056 cubic inches and holds 105 dry quarts, EXCEPT a standard cranberry barrel is 5,826 cubic inches and holds 86.7 dry quarts. Why? (p. 392)

What do Danial Tompkins, George Dallas, Thomas Hendricks and Willian King have in common?
They were all elected Vice President of the United States. (513)

What do Nerva, Deius, Aemilian and Carus have in common?
They were all Roman Emperors who rules most of the Western world. (678)

What do Zosimus, Conon, Hyginus, and Sabinian have in common?
They were all popes of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. (p.704)

What do a mess, a mob, a mischief, a watch, a romp, a knot, a hover and a bale have in common?
They are all collective names for animals, respectively iguanas, kangaroos, mice, nightingales, otters, toads, trout and turtles. (P. 712)

For sixty years, 1940 to 2000, Michael was the most popular boy's name in America. It hasn't been in the top ten in the last twenty years.

For 80 years, 1880 to 1970, Mary was the most popular girl's name in America. It hasn't been in the top ten for the last fifty years. (P.714)

Everyone knows, but it is good to be reminded. The US has the highest per capita health expenditures, $12,012/yr. Canada is second at $6,470.

Real Name-Popular Name
Patsy McClenny-Morgan Fairchild
Calvin Broadus-Snoop Dog
Winona Horowitz-Winona Ryder
Marvin Lee Aday-Meatloaf
Artis Leon Ivey Jr.-Coolio (P.273)

The list of inflation adjusted top ten grossing movies were all released before 1982. "Gone With the Wind" is number 1. (P.272)

A human (top speed 27.89 mph) could outrun an elephant (25 mph) but not a warthog (30 mph) (P. 316)

In 1940 45% of US households were 4 or more persons. In 2020, 23% were.
In 1940 7% were single person. In 2020, 27% were. (P.615)

Why Babe Ruth is the baseball GOAT.
American League Homerun Leader
1912-10
1913-12
1914-9
1915-7
1916-12
1917-12
1918-11-Ruth
1919-29-Ruth
1920-54-Ruth
1921-59-Ruth
(Even though Wilt did a similar thing with ppg from 1960 to 1965 and he is not the basketball GOAT)

I love the World Almanac.

[Nick Salenga]

This is a great book that has authoritative answers to your questions on every topic from politics to pop culture for 2024.

[Scott]

I'm counting this damn it....

I didn't read this the way you read something narrative, but I have been through this cover to cover multiple times to create THOUSANDS of flashcards to make endless memory palaces to memorize things for Jeopardy.

Honestly, this should count as 2 or 3 books if we go by time invested, but I'll settle for one right now.

Anyway, it's an Almanac, what do you want in a review. It contains facts.

My only complaint is the bizarre choice of format in some charts. Why the fuck do some of the sports championship ones have "First league champion | Second league champion | Actual overall champion I want | Winning coach..."? Just stick to the wikipedia method of either listing the overall champ first or, more commonly, listing the two final competitors and bolding the winner?

[Kevin]

I used to get a new one each year for Christmas when I was younger. I had gotten away from getting it for years. I'll look through this throughout the year, so might as well put it on my Done pile. Definitely recommended.

[StephenPaul ChaseJr]

I love reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[PottWab Regional Library]

SM

[Stephen Paul Chase, Jr.]

I love reading facts and statistics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[David Johnson]

good

[Marie Lala]

Interesting facts I have the actual book