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30 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything (New Answers)
Ah, statistics. In high school, that was one of the most dreaded classes everyone tried hard to avoid. Despite how useful the course was, it just didn’t appeal to our picky teenage taste. Thankfully, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to really appreciate statistics for how much they teach us about our world. Clearly, I’m not alone either.
Earlier this week, Reddit user Foundation_james reached out asking for the most interesting statistics people know, and the post received thousands of responses. We’ve gathered some of the most fascinating statistics people shared, so you can read them below and add them to your list of go-to fun facts. Be sure to upvote all of your favorite stats, and then if you’re looking to learn even more from Bored Panda, we recommend checking out this piece next.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Of the 30 fastest 100 meter sprint times, 21 were run by athletes who tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.
The other 9 were Usain Bolt.
Statistics are more prevalent in our day to day lives than many of us even realize. Every time we check the weather before deciding what to wear in the morning, we’re relying on statistics. When our insurance company informs us of the rates we’re going to be charged, they’ve determined those numbers based on stats of all the drivers and homeowners in our area. When a friend offers us a cigarette at a party, we may politely decline because it’s hard to ignore the statistics about cancer rates linked to smoking.
The field of statistics is the science of learning from data, and without an understanding of it, we would have a very difficult time making decisions. When preparing for emergencies, for example, we can assess the risks based on statistics. How often do hurricanes occur in this area? How likely is one to occur within the next week? When a hurricane does hit, how devastating is it expected to be? The National Hurricane Center uses various statistical models "based on historical relationships between hurricane-specific information, such as the location and time of year, and the behavior of historical hurricanes" to predict future storms. These stats are incredibly important in keeping citizens safe and minimizing destruction from hurricanes.
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#2
There have been 288 mass shootings at schools since 2009 in the USA. The country with the next highest amount has………….. 8. To be clear they have 2.7% of the mass shootings at school that we do.
Which does not count Pulse in Orlando, the Vegas Strip shooting, etc.
#3
34 percent of adults and 75 percent of children sleep with a stuffed animal or a blanket, or other sentimental object as their comfort object.
Statistics also play a huge role in political campaigns. We can predict the outcome of elections by using data about an area from past elections and by polling individuals during a campaign to see where they are leaning. Politicians running for office use this data to decide where to focus their energy as well. If a county has voted Republican in every presidential election for the past 20 years, they are likely to vote the same way in the future, regardless of how many rallies are held there.
Statistics have also been incredibly important to governments in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. Decisions about lockdowns, restrictions, mask mandates and vaccine requirements have all been made based on illness and death rates over time. It would have been very difficult for governments to determine a course of action in fighting Covid without proof of how it’s spreading and where.
#4
Despite making up less than 4% of the population, Americans produce over 20% of the garbage in the world.
#5
Less than 10% of Americans do not wear seatbelts and account for 51% of car related fatalities.
Wear your seatbelt. Ignore your friend who told you "My buddy's cousin would've died if he was wearing his seatbelt!"
#6
48% of British people wouldn’t go to space even if their safety was guaranteed with the most popular reason being that they just simply didn’t have any interest in going
Statistics also benefit us when we’re doing our weekly grocery shop. Stores use the data they collect on what products are being purchased the most frequently to decide how much to order. This is particularly important for items that become more popular in specific seasons, such as sunscreen in the summer months and hot chocolate in the winter. And if you want to determine the best time to go grocery shopping to avoid crowds, the stats will tell you to go on Mondays and Tuesdays. Skip shopping on Saturdays and Sundays, especially between 11am-12pm, as shoppers spend an average of 7 more minutes in stores on weekends due to crowds.
#7
Dragonflies have a 95% hunt success rate. Making them the most effective hunters in the world.
#8
93% of people don't check facts they read on the internet.
Statistics can also be exciting when learning about topics we’re passionate about, like sports. Data analytics have become extremely important in the world of professional sports for team strategies and for the enjoyment of fans. It wasn’t until 2002, however, that sports analytics really started to take off. The catalyst was Billy Beane, who was general manager of the Oakland Athletics at the time, using statistical analysis to curate a powerful team of lesser-known baseball players. After the Athletics almost won the World Series, Beane’s strategy, which came to be known as “Moneyball”, quickly became the norm for other teams as well and even inspired a 2011 film starring Brad Pitt.
#10
Genghis Khan killed so many people that he cooled the earth by a bit.
#11
Innocent people will admit to a crime they never committed 43% of the time.
According to a report from Research and Markets, the global sports analytics industry is expected to reach $3.4 billion by 2028. Part of the reason for this is the speed at which analytics technology has evolved. Companies like Genius Sports, for example, are able to “generate statistical breakdowns from video footage to help coaches optimize their play calling during games or generate post-game takeaways”. Cameras are also used by many companies to track player movement, ball speeds and more. But it’s not only the teams who benefit from this data. Fans use these statistics to create their fantasy league teams and place bets on who will win games.
#13
20% of the mammal species on our planet are different types of bats.
There's about 5000 species of mammals, and about 1000 of them are varieties of our little winged buddies.
#15
Brazil is the country that kills the most trans women per year.
Brazil is also the country where the porn category with the most viewers is the one with trans women.
No matter what your favorite sport is, I’m sure you can find a high-tech analytics company that’s pumping out fascinating data about your favorite athletes. For example, Trace in Austin, Texas, uses recording gear and an AI system to analyze film from soccer games, so coaches and players don’t have to. Players wear tracking devices that record their games, and an AI bot stitches together clips of all of the most important moments. Trace also notes performance metrics including minutes played, distance ran, top speed, max efforts, and stamina, and creates a heat map tracking where players spent most of their time during a game. Technology like this saves coaches time and helps them create more effective strategies for future games.
#16
Survey of Fortune 500 executives found that 93% agree the golf reflects life.
86% admit to cheating at golf.
#17
There are more privately owned guns than people in the U.S. (Washington Post June 19, 2018)
#18
That belly button bacteria study was wild. 60 belly buttons sampled. 2368 different species of bacteria found. The study indicated that 1458 of them may be new to science. One had a rare bacteria found in Japanese soil and they had never been to Japan. Two had rare bacteria that thrived on ice caps and thermal vents. Not a single bacteria was common to all buttons.
Nadine Bamberger 2 years ago
I read that the composition of bacteria found in a belly button is as unique as a fingerprint.
When it comes to statistical analysis, there are 7 key types: descriptive, inferential, predictive, prescriptive, exploratory, causal and mechanistic. Each type serves a slightly different purpose, but they all help the world go round. Descriptive statistics, for example, deal with “organizing and summarizing data using numbers and graphs”. Using visual aids like graphs and tables is an efficient way to convey information because it's more palatable for the general population. These are often used in news articles to simplify complex data. As the name suggests, inferential statistics allow us to infer generalizations about data and “make conclusions with respect to future outcomes” by testing hypotheses. This method often uses the sampling theory, various tests of significance and statistical control.
#19
The leading cause of death for ages 5 to 18 (correction 1 through 18) has recently switched from car crashes to gun violence in the US.
Your school age child is more likely to die from gun violence than any other cause, including car crashes. 21% gun violence, 20% car crashes.
(Edit: Seeing as rates of gun violence for 1 to 4 year olds is exceedingly low (accidental deaths are a different category), the picture for 5 to 18 year olds is likely higher than 21%)
#20
70% of the german population believe that their ancestors during WW2 helped jewish escapees or didn't support/partake in the actions performed by the nazis.
Sanne H. 2 years ago (edited)
It’s easy to judge, if you’re not a 1930s German, living in a country with a huge war debt, a deep war trauma after 1918, right after the börsenkrach of 1929 and with a new leader promising a bright future, supported by very smart propaganda.
Schnee Wittchen 2 years ago
Sanne is right, just imagine being told all that c**p from early childhood on... You start believing the rubbish
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t-Grex 2 years ago
Sounds almost like when my relatives say we used to not own slaves...we're white southerners who own a lot of plantation land and I have visited the slave graveyard on the old property. It's delusional for them to think that. Although my extended folks are...special.
Anna Meyers 10 months ago
Or like my family. They were New Englanders. They didn't own slaves. Oh, but they were ship captains. Did you know if they needed to lighten the loads at sea, slaves were considered "ballast?" You can find out awful things going through archives.
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Jon S. 2 years ago
Assuming each living German has 8 relatives who were alive at the time of the war (probably more if you includes aunts/uncles), then I can see each family preserving one story about something one of them did in defiance of the Nazis, where as the bad stories never get spoken. Remembrance bias.
DC 2 years ago
... that, plus whatever is considered help may vary by a great margin. Bought stuff at a jew's shop? Helped them! Not snitching out everyone, often, is consideed "having helped them". Of course, the standards the participation in Naziery s measured by, are different. Led the local HJ, smashed a doze Windows on crystal's night, snitched about hundreds of people? "I did what I had to do to keep myself out of trouble...".
Load More Replies... DC 2 years ago
I know my Grandpa was in the Waffen SS. I don't know any details. Help? Not so much. His father always bragged about havng bought shoes at a jewish shoemaker's after the NSDAP had taken over power, but ... what amount of help is that? Doing what dozens of people did every day before the Nazis, and were just about to stop doing at his place. It's what everybody should have done, nothing outstanding about it. Whatever Grandpa did in WW2, I know exyctly two stories, which were "Haha, we were kinda a weird bunch, haha", anecdotal humanity showing up in inhumane beings of similar physiology.......
Ian Webling 2 years ago (edited)
Interesting statistic. When the Allies entered Germany, they found that zero percent of the populace supported or had supported the Nazis. /s
Michael Largey 2 years ago
After Watergate, you couldn't find anybody who had voted for Nixon.
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Paul Davis 2 years ago
I had a boss once who insisted that his grandfather who joined the SS did so against his will.
Michelle Daniel 2 years ago
Of course, who would want to believe their family took part in that mess?
Ralph Watkins 2 years ago
I know quite a few German_American in the 50s to 80s. Most of them never heard their own history of how it is taught in the rest of the world. They were led to believe that it was only members of the Nazi party that carried out the atrocities. Another 5 million non-Jews were also sent to the camps to die by the Nazis. Something we no longer teach in the US. Meanwhile the USSR also persecuted the Jews & were also killed off. Japan is still not open about what they did to the citizens of the nations they conquered during the war. I have family from China who's one aunt survived the Rape of Nanjing. When the commanding general of the regiment died in the 90s, he confessed to the atrocities & the Japanese govt said he was lying.
IndigoViolent 2 years ago
American conservatives: "We fought in WWII to liberate Europe from the Nazis, because we love freedom so much! Oppose cancel culture!" History: "The Nazis burned books about human sexuality, including early research into trans identity, and murdered gay people in the concentration camps. They also banned abortion." AmCons: "...Right, well, uh...U-S-A! U-S-A!"
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Richard Black 2 years ago
In 30 years the next generation of russians will make the same claim about Ukraine
Dead Died Death 2 years ago
I think you'll find the French are the same, they were all in the resistance, no one was Vichy.
Lorraine Raanes 2 years ago
And every French person insists their ancestors were part of the resistance!
Anna Meyers 10 months ago
Based on how my American family is behaving now, I think far too many Germans just pretended not to see what was in front if them.
Glengoolie Blue 1 year ago
If they stood by and didn't resist the Nazis, then they were Nazis.
HarriMissesScotland 2 years ago
There is a touching documentary about Gino Bartali, a Tour de France winner, called My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes. Even after Mussolini invaded Italy, and he searched the houses of those he thought were hiding German Jews, he was able to deliver messages by hiding them in the handlebars of his bike. He was allowed to ride anywhere as he was "training for the Tour." It is available on Peacock.
Amy Connell 2 years ago
I wish their hopes (or delusions) of their ancestors had been true. Just imagine the outcome that could of occurred but we must preserve history and never repeat it.
LaurieAnne Smith 2 years ago
And Hitler was a closet Catholic, a Mason and a car carrying Electricial Tradesman. 😂😂😂
Joy Hunter 2 years ago
Not supporting or taking part in the Nazis' activities doesn't count. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." If you're not part of the Resistance, you're a collaborator..
Eva Sawyer 2 years ago
There were far less supporters of the Nazi regime then people like to think. There was a concentration camp that the Allies liberated and there was a farm next door. The soldiers were pissed and wanted to know if he knew what happened there - he said he didn't know. Because if he had made a big deal about it he would have been in there right along with the others. Ever hear the phrase "it is better to be at the right hand of the devil then in his path"? People were terrified to speak out about it.
juni 2 years ago
And every American worked for the Underground Railroad...
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Squirrelly Panda 2 years ago
There will come a point when they will be technically correct. But they also have ancestors that were hard core nazis. Every time a couple have a child, their child will have nearly double the ancestors each of the parents have individually.
thatawkwardhistorian 2 years ago
The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history. -George Orwell
Michele Slider 2 years ago
They could be correct. With 8,000,000 members, the Nazi party was 10% of the German population. Not supporting/partaking can still be passively allowing.
Penny Fan 2 years ago
See if you can find the video(?) of Arnold Schwarzenegger talking his father's generation and the effect of Nazism on them as perpetrators. Most of them weren't intrinsically evil but they closed their eyes and allowed evil to happen. He described them as completely broken.
Robert Pagnani 2 years ago
Just like probably 90% of Americans believe their ancestors weren’t racist, homophobic, or complacent in, if not strongly in support of slavery. Every American likes to imagine their ancestors (or a previous version of themselves) as rabid abolitionists, or “would have” helped the Underground Railroad, but the majority would have turned in an escaped slave for $50. History often paints a very unflattering picture of humanity, Especially as it relates to where YOU come from!
Ellie Rosser 2 years ago
This is a partly positive thing. It means that 70% of all Germans find the idea of what happened so horrible they can't believe anyone close to them could have taken part.
#21
There are more Panda Express restaurants than actual Pandas
Predictive analysis is also pretty self-explanatory, as it is used to make predictions about future events based on “current and past facts and figures". We rely on predictive analysis for weather forecasts, and many businesses including marketing companies, insurance companies, financial corporations and online service providers use predictive analysis to gain competitive advantages. Conversely, prescriptive analysis uses data to determine the best reaction to a situation. It relies on several techniques including simulation, graph analysis, algorithms, complex event processing and more.
#22
Chopping wood for an hour results in a 48% increase in testosterone in men.
#23
You have far more chances to die from a a coconut fall than by a shark attack
#24
A full 6 percent of Americans reckon they could beat a grizzly bear in unarmed combat.
Edit: And before another bear arm joke, just fyi bears already don’t have arms. So removing bear arms doesn’t improve your chances. Technically, all four are legs, with the front two called forelegs.
Exploratory analysis is generally “the first step of the data analysis process that is conducted prior to any other statistical analysis techniques”. It is not the sole method for predicting or drawing conclusions, but it provides a preview of data and can give valuable insight. Causal analysis is used to understand the reason behind why events occur. For example, it can be used by businesses to trace what went wrong in a failed experiment or by IT companies to check the quality assurance of their software. Lastly, mechanistic analysis is the least common type and is used to “understand the definite changes that could make changes in other variables”. For example, it is used in biological sciences "when studying and inspecting how various parts of the virus are affected by making changes in medicine".
#26
There are 1.9 popes per square mile in the Vatican City
Subrata Pradhan 2 years ago
Vatican City is 0.19 sq mi, so as per the fact stated above , there are supposed to be 0.361 popes, so random statistics doesn't mean to be true always.
#27
The Birthday Paradox:
It only takes 23 people in the same room for there to be a 50% chance two of them share the same birthday.
Difference between a million and a billion. When put in perspective by units of time, one million seconds is 12 days, one billion seconds is 31 years.
I hope this list is showing you how interesting random statistics about our world can be. I'm thankful for all of the curious statisticians who did the work to figure out these facts and all of the Reddit users who were able to share them with us. Don't forget to upvote all of your favorites, and then let us know in the comments what the most interesting statistic you know is!
#28
If you made $295,000 every single day since the birth of Christ, you still wouldn't be worth what Elon Musk is.
Edit: Let's put the same concept into seconds. If you were to do a conversion of dollars to seconds ($1 = 1 second), the median American gets 1 day and 10 hours (net worth of $121,760).
Elon musk would get 6,910 YEARS.
#29
The human eye blinks about 4.2 million times a year on average
#30
The job with the highest death rate historically in the US is President
Edit: I didn’t factor in lifetime appointments, so technically I was wrong if you count that
What do you think ?
Viraj Shrivastava 2 years ago (edited)
Some of these stats felt really fake, and not just the ones that said things like “67% of statistics are made up on the spot” EDIT: now that I think about it, maybe that stat is true
ichabod crane 2 years ago
im so over being a part of a world that now says unalived because the word dead is so....what? scary? offensive? wtf is wrong with people!!!
Raiden Prime 2 years ago
Whew! Rough day at work, today. I'm unalive tired.
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Ali H M Salehuddin 2 years ago
Statistically speaking, the miracles of coincidence are bound to happen. It is so certain that they will happen till we can say that the greatest miracle of all is when there is no coincidence ever happening at all.
Tami 2 years ago
Yes, it's often said that truth can be stranger than fiction. Events happen in real life that are so strange that if you used them in a fictional story people would say, "That could never happen!"
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Keley Babs 2 years ago
CITE YOUR SOURCES!! These are interesting statements and I would love to look into them more and be able to use them in arguments, but I won't if I don't know where they came from
Viraj Shrivastava 2 years ago (edited)
Some of these stats felt really fake, and not just the ones that said things like “67% of statistics are made up on the spot” EDIT: now that I think about it, maybe that stat is true
ichabod crane 2 years ago
im so over being a part of a world that now says unalived because the word dead is so....what? scary? offensive? wtf is wrong with people!!!
Raiden Prime 2 years ago
Whew! Rough day at work, today. I'm unalive tired.
Load More Replies... Ali H M Salehuddin 2 years ago
Statistically speaking, the miracles of coincidence are bound to happen. It is so certain that they will happen till we can say that the greatest miracle of all is when there is no coincidence ever happening at all.
Tami 2 years ago
Yes, it's often said that truth can be stranger than fiction. Events happen in real life that are so strange that if you used them in a fictional story people would say, "That could never happen!"
Load More Replies... Keley Babs 2 years ago
CITE YOUR SOURCES!! These are interesting statements and I would love to look into them more and be able to use them in arguments, but I won't if I don't know where they came from
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