Statisticians are no Carl Sandburgs. Ask them to describe a place and they won't say Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat (or even Hotel Builder for the World, Snow Maker, Stacker of Genealogical Records). Instead they'll give you percentages, ranking, numbers.

Still, there's a certain sparse poetry to numbers, and, as with poetry, a meaning that may not be entirely clear on the first reading.

What can we make, for example, of the fact that Utah has more breweries and brew pubs per capita than New York or California? (Is it because of our liquor laws? Our need to feel less "repressed"?) We also produce more pounds of solid waste per capita than the national average? (Because we have more disposable diapers? More beer bottles?)

Here are some Utah numbers that may — or may not — help define who we are:

Chuck-a-Rama buffets: 9

Starbucks: 11

Breweries: 15

Hazardous waste sites: 12

Pickups: 1 per every 7 people

Minivans: 1 per every 35 people

Horses: 1 per every 45 people

Snowmobiles: 1 per every 76 people

LDS ward houses: 1,300

Synagogues: 4

Mosques: 3

Average bank credit-card debt per household: $6,714

Utahns on the Forbes richest 400 Americans list: 3

Number of five-star hotels: 1

Cloggers: 3,000

Living people who have ever sung with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: 1,500

Of the 25 winners in the 1999 Scrapbook Hall of Fame, the number who are Utahns or are Utah natives: 15

Osmond brothers still maintaining residences in Utah: 6

Nobel Prize winners from Utah: 1

New Eagle Scouts in 2000: 3,828

Juvenile arrests in 2000: 31,117

Babies born in 2001 named Brigham: 24

Babies born in 2001 named Stockton: 27

Height of tallest building: 420 feet

Height of tallest mountain: 13,528 feet

Number of elevators: 5,008

Number of escalators: 287

Licensed cosmetologists/barbers: 20,342

Licensed lawyers: 5,943

Licensed massage therapists: 3,550

Licensed deception detectors: 23

Utah businesses with "pioneer" in their names: 284

Approved Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association rodeos in Utah in 2001: 22

Percent Utahns who live in urban areas: 90

Pounds of brine shrimp harvested in 2000: 19.9 million

Utah companies on the New York Stock Exchange: 3,000