Beijing

New Delhi

Manila

MoscowLondon

Buenos Aires

Brasília

Ottawa

México

Moscow

London

Washington,D.C.

Beijing

NewDelhi

Manila

Moscow

London

Buenos Aires

Brasília

Ottawa

México

Moscow

London

Washington,D.C.

SANTA THEN & NOW

WORLD DISTRIBUTIONOF SANTA-BELIEVING

HOMES1910

WORLD DISTRIBUTIONOF SANTA-BELIEVING

HOMES2010

ELVESREQUIRED

Canada1 million

Canada4.8 million

Brazil3.2 million

Brazil37.5 million

Argentina0.87 million

Argentina10.6 million

United Kingdom5.7 million

United Kingdom9.6 million

United Kingdom5.7 million

United Kingdom9.6 million

Russia9.6 million

Russia22.3 million

Russia9.6 million

Russia22.3 million

Middle East0.6 million

Middle East2.8 million

India0.6 million

India6.8 million

Philippines1.2 million

Philippines18.5 million

China0.3 million

China14.3 milllion

Sub-saharan Africa

1.3 million

Sub-saharan Africa

110 million

United States12.3 million

United States52 million

Mexico2.3 million

Mexico23 million

A report from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life says there were about 600 million Christians in 1910, but that figure more thantripled to over two billion in 2010.

Extrapolating from the Pew research, we note that given the change in the size of the family the number of homes visited has grown enormously. In the early 1900s the average family in the world consisted of 6.9 people — making about 87-million Christian homes. In the early 2000s, the average family in the world consisted of 4.7 people — making about 425-million Christianhomes. Santa has five times more homes to visit.

Homes visited by Santa globally make up about 32% of the homes in the world, down from 35% a century ago. However, according to the Pewresearch, this apparent stability in the Christian population masks amomentous shift. Although Europe and the Americas still contain the majority of Santa- visited homes (63%), that share is much lower than it was in 1910 (95%).

Santa’s distance travelled has also grown. He is now visiting around 200 million homes insub-Saharan Africa and the Asia Pacific region, where there were five or six million rooftop stops at the turn of the century.

Although the Middle East and North Africa are seen as Santa’s original “hood”, that region today has the lowest concentration of Santa-visitedhomes (about 4% of the homes in the area). Meanwhile, Indonesia, aMuslim-majority country is home to more Santa-visited homes than all of thecountries in the Middle East and North Africa combined because of the largeconcentration of Christians there.

Based on the world Christian population, that there were 1,252,260,000children anxiously awaiting Santa’s arrival last year. All of those extra children have put a greater strain on the sleigh.

Back in 1900, two of the most popular gifts were the Lionel electric trolley for boys (weight 5.45 kg) and bisque dolls for girls (weight 0.45 kg). Multiplied by the number of children, Santa’s sleigh would take off with 1,282,158,500 kg of gifts. Last year, two of the most popular gifts were a Nerf gun for boys (3.4 kg) and a karaoke machine for girls (5.1 kg). Those gifts, multiplied by the number of children, would combine to tip the scales at 5,322,105,000 kg. Quantum flux drives propel the sleigh to

faster-than-light speeds. The reindeer are no longerrequired for flight, but remain to uphold tradition.

Elves required in 1910

Elves required in 2010

149,255

G-forcesafetyharness

Dasher Fairy dust andmagic corn allowsSanta’s reindeer tofly on Christmas Eve.

Dancer

Bag fullof toys

Sleigh

Prancer

Vixen

Comet

Cupid

Donner

Blitzen

Vertical repulsor padsVertical repulsor pads Heated, pressurized cabin

Sensorarray

Storage compartmentfull of toys

Feedtrough

Rudolf’s bug-deflectorhelmet

SANTA’S SLEIGH 1910

SANTA’S SLEIGH 2010

Santa’s journeystarts at his workshopat the North Pole

Santa’s workload has grown massively in the last 100 years. Kris Kringle now has more children needing presents, more homes to visit,and more elves needed to do the work. He has also seen a massive shift in the places in the world he has to visit.

IAN VANDAELLE, MIKE FAILLE AND RICHARD JOHNSON / NATIONAL POSTSOURCES: PEW RESEARCH

It’s not just the travel that takes it’s toll on Santa, the snacks start to add up as well. If Santa eats three Oreos and drinks one cup of milk at each house he stops at, he’ll consume 297 calories per stop. When you multiply that by the number of stops he makes, that’s a whopping 137.7 billion calories.

But Santa gets a little bit of exercise from all that travelling. The Journal of Medicine & Science in Sport & Exercise estimates a man Santa's size would burn off about 195 calories per mile. Even though that means Santa would burn off almost 1 billion calories in his trip, it doesn’t make much of a dent in the figure, dropping it to 136.8 billion calories.

The average pound of fat is made up of about 3,500 calories, meaning by the end of his trip, Santa has ballooned to more than 17 million kg. Probably why he spends his time working out.

In 2010 Santa had 463,800,000 stops to make. If he did this in the course of 10 hours, Santa would only have 0.000078 seconds at each house.Experts assume that Santa has pimped his ride.

If we assume each elf makes 1 toy an hour, 8 hours a day, 364 days a year (nobody works Christmas Day!), each elf makes 2,912 toys a year. In 1910, elves were making gifts for about 434,630,000 children and in 2010 for 1,252,260,000 children.

430,034