Think Malcolm Gladwell – but with less hair. The Conservative frontbencher David Willetts has written a series of dry, academic-ish, books but his latest – The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future, and Why They Should Give it Back – will appeal to a much wider audience.

It has already been widely praised – Daniel Finkelstein in the Times said it was the most important book written by a Conservative for years, Richard Reeves in the Observer described Willetts as a one-man thinktank and the Guardian applauded the book in the "In praise of ... " slot on the editorial page – and there doesn't seem to be any point writing another glowing review. But there is plenty of information in the book about British society that is worth sharing. I learned lots of new facts. Here are 10 of them.

1. People aged 45 to 65 – the baby boomers – own more than half of the £6.7tn national wealth. Willetts estimates that they own £3.5tn - £1tn in liquid assets, £1tn in housing, £0.75tn in other physical assets and £0.75tn in pensions. He says the over-65s own £2.3tn and the under-45s own £0.9tn. The main argument of the book is that the baby boomers should share more with the young.

2. Baby boomers have done particularly well out of the welfare state. Those born between 1956 and 1961 are forecast to get from the welfare state 118% of what they will have put into it.

3. In 1965 22% of women getting married were pregnant. The figure for today is 9%. In the 1960s the first baby boomers were getting married and they were marrying young. The average age of brides hit a record low of 22 in 1964. Willetts says this contributed to the increase in the divorce rate in the 1970s. "Sadly people who marry young or marry pregnant are most at risk of breaking up."

4. Average household size in Britain (2.4) is one of the lowest in the world. Willetts says there is a correlation between average household size and equality. If a couple break up, and the man is working and the woman isn't, the man will be counted as richer in the official figures (because he now does not have family to feed) while the woman will be counted as poorer. "By and large more equal societies have bigger households," Willetts say. The average household size in Sweden is 3.1, which is "one reason why its level of inequality is much lower".

5. Parents are spending more time looking after their young children. Over the last 30 years, the average amount of time a mother spends caring for a child under five has risen from 73 minutes a day to 151 minutes. The average for a father has risen from 17 minutes a day to 63 minutes.

6. But parents are not particularly close to their teenage children. Britain is near the bottom of the international league table for 15-year-old girls who find it easy to talk to their mother. The figure for Britain is 72%, compared to the 77% average for developed countries. Only 50% of 15-year-old girls find it easy to talk to their father, which is also below average.

7. Children learn more if their parents spend more time with them. Willetts says IQ is rising in advanced western countries and that advances in IQ match the increase in the amount of time parents spend with their young children. "It is the spread of household goods, increasing the time available for parents to devote to childcare, which is crucial. The microwave oven has raised IQ."

8. Britain's population is forecast to become the largest in the EU by 2040. And by 2060 it's predicted to hit 77m (compared with 72m in France and 71m in Germany).

9. Income tax is a tax on middle-aged men. Men aged 35 to 55 pay £63bn in income tax, two fifths of the total. Men pay £109bn in total. Women pay £40bn in total.

10. Britain is one of the few countries in the EU where more than half of adults (52%) have moved house in the past 10 years. The others are Finland (59%), Denmark (57%), Sweden (56%) and the Netherlands (53%). Willetts says this is evidence of British society being open, market-facing and mobile.