35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything

If you read Bored Panda, you know we like data. If we're doing a story on a woman banning her mother-in-law from her house, we look at what experts have to say on family relationships. If we're writing about employees quitting on a demanding boss, we present surveys on worker needs.

Numbers help us humans to contextualize individual examples and show us how common or rare, loved or hated something is in a broader sense.

Interested in the big picture, they give us the big picture, Reddit user Awesomeguy256 posted a question to the platform, asking its users "What is the most interesting statistic?" Since then, people have left over 14,000 comments under it, many of which share fascinating information on everything from economics to the animal kingdom. Here are some of the best ones.

This post may include affiliate links.

More Vietnam vets [took their own lives] than [passed away] in the war.

Fewwordsbetter , israel palacio Report

Final score:

344points

POST

View more comments

A black man in St. Louis is more likely to be killed by a police officer than the average US citizen is to get murdered at all.

Whether you think BLM is a bunch of horse s**t or not, Republican or Democrat, or whatever, this stat is pretty interesting. Mind you, a subset of the US population probably doesn't even believe that statistic is true.

Qubeye , Mental Health America (MHA) Report

Final score:

343points

POST

View more comments

80% of Orange Tabby cats are male.

kitkat_pro , Sam Chang Report

Final score:

306points

POST

View more comments

Wearing a seatbelt correctly reduces chance of front seat passenger fatality due to front end collision by 45%. Seat belts save lives. For f***s sake people, wear them. Also airbags are more likely to cause injuries rather than prevent them when seat belts are not worn.

danthemanning , State Farm Report

Final score:

285points

POST

View more comments

Hold up your hands and clap them together.

Wait one second, then do it again.

If you could plot the distance between the first clap and the second clap, it would be more than 800 kilometers.

This is because the Earth is moving around the sun, the sun is moving around the center of the galaxy, the galaxy is moving through the Virgo Supercluster, and the Virgo Supercluster is barreling through the universe. When you add up all the velocities and compare the result to the cosmic microwave background (which is the closest thing we have to a universal frame of reference), it comes out to about 800 kilometers per second.

In the time it took you to read this, you've traveled farther than you'll ever walk in your life.

RamsesThePigeon , Lisa Fotios Report

Final score:

266points

POST

View more comments

Statistically speaking the average person is a 30 year old Chinese man.

ohazltn , Juan Encalada Report

Final score:

257points

POST

View more comments

Australia has more kangaroos than humans.

Jiren21 , David Clode Report

Final score:

240points

POST

View more comments

The tallest giraffe ever measured (George) was 19 feet (5.8m) tall.

The longest crocodile ever measured (Lolong) was 20.25 feet (6.17m) long

So take the tallest giraffe you've ever seen, and then add a little, and you've got the biggest crocodile ever measured reliably with a tape measure down its back.

Herpetologists agree that sightings of crocodiles up to 23 feet are not unreasonable, but they're very hard to capture when they're that big. Therefore, no absolutely reliable numbers.

FlorenceCattleya , MartyWilliams Report

Final score:

213points

POST

View more comments

Sharks are older than trees. Sharks are at least 400 million years old, trees are sitting at 350 million years.

Edit: Also another fun fact, sharks are so successful when it comes to evolution and long term survival because of a trait called "Adaptive Radiation", which is a huge increase of species diversity in a short period of time. Modern sharks stem from an adaptive radiation that happened during the Jurassic Period about 200 million years ago. One of the newest modern sharks is the hammerhead, coming in at around 50 million years.

corvettee01 , Gerald Schömbs Report

Final score:

213points

POST

View more comments

#10

That by almost all important measures, the world is a better place to live today than at any other time in human history.

keenly_disinterested , Benigno Hoyuela Report

Final score:

209points

POST

View more comments

#11

The richest 1% dudes in the world have more wealth than the rest of the planet.

The world's 8 richest men have as much money as the poorest half, 3,6 billions people.

Munninnu , NASA Robotics Competitions Sheyene Gerardi Report

Final score:

201points

POST

View more comments

#12

The average cumulus cloud weighs more than the Statue of Liberty.

denny31415926 , C Dustin Report

Final score:

194points

POST

View more comments

#13

Britain had more planes at the end of the Battle of Britain than at the beginning, because they were being made at such an incredible rate that it surpassed the losses.

ALittleNightMusing , United Kingdom Government Report

Final score:

183points

POST

View more comments

#14

If you're in a group of twenty-three people, there's a 50% chance that two of them share a birthday.

If you're in a group of seventy people, that probability jumps to over 99%.

RamsesThePigeon , Robert Anderson Report

Final score:

170points

POST

View more comments

#15

3-4 billion people on this planet earn $2.50 or less per day.

chelseatys , Mathieu Turle Report

Final score:

166points

POST

View more comments

#16

I found out at a conference last week that 5 billion people don't have access to safe surgery.
It really shocked me. That's 5 out of every 7 people in the world.

Missing_panda , Piron Guillaume Report

Final score:

165points

POST

View more comments

#17

25% of California’s air pollution is from China.

cOOlio-pasta , Jim Gardner Report

Final score:

163points

POST

View more comments

#18

Til the world record for children born to one woman is 69. She had 16 sets of twins, 7 sets of triplets, and 4 sets of quadruplets.

TnekKralc , Dan Bock Report

Final score:

161points

POST

View more comments

#19

America has about 5% of the worlds population but about 25% of the worlds criminals.

Gaarakotq , RODNAE Productions Report

Final score:

159points

POST

View more comments

#20

3% of everyone on earth alive in 1939 died in WWII.

paul99501 , Duncan Kidd Report

Final score:

158points

POST

View more comments

#21

South America is moving away from Africa at about the same speed your fingernails grow.

stickmanDave , Sophie Louisnard Report

Final score:

148points

POST

View more comments

#22

Only 3% of the Earth's water is fresh.

NantiAboutThat , Michael C Report

Final score:

144points

POST

View more comments

#23

It would take 1.2 million mosquitoes, each sucking once, to completely drain the average human of blood.

pm_me_anythingg_sfw , Miika Silfverberg Report

Final score:

135points

POST

View more comments

#24

If all the humans alive right now lived in the same density per square mile as New York City, we could all live in the state of Texas.

dudewhatwouldhappen , Joshua Newton Report

Final score:

135points

POST

View more comments

#25

Over 1 million earths could fit into the sun.

lymediseasesucks Report

Final score:

135points

POST

View more comments

#26

Size-wise, a particle of dust is halfway between a subatomic particle and the Earth.

anon , Kunj Parekh Report

Final score:

135points

POST

View more comments

#27

86% of British people live within 8 miles from where they were born.

Gsurhijrsee , Ian Taylor Report

Final score:

133points

POST

View more comments

#28

Fat leaves our body 86% through the breath. The other 14% leaves our body through water.

PleiadianJedi , engin akyurt Report

Final score:

128points

POST

View more comments

#29

It takes roughly 170,000 years for photons from the Sun's core to reach the convection zone of the photosphere where it is released out into space. In other words, the Sun light you see is hundreds of thousands of years old.

mattk1017 , Jonathan Borba Report

Final score:

128points

POST

View more comments

#30

The population of Ireland has not yet recovered half-way from the famine of 150 years ago.

The immediate effects of the famine saw a great many people [perished] from starvation or disease and others emigrate to avoid the same fate. The longer term effects created a breakdown in the social order which forced emigration and a consequent 100 year decline in the population. It's only in the last 50 years that the population has started to grow again.

TryToHelpPeople , Barbora Dostálová Report

Final score:

127points

POST

View more comments

#31

If you and your spouse both have a divorce under your belt , and one (or both) of you have MORE than one divorce under your belt, the failure rate of your marriage is 93%.

anon , engin akyurt Report

Final score:

119points

POST

View more comments

#32

85% of all Americans live within 20 minutes of a Walmart.

VoltaicParticle , Mike Mozart Report

Final score:

102points

POST

View more comments

#33

There are more trees on planet Earth than there are stars in our galaxy.

SonoftheBread , Jason Leem Report

Final score:

101points

POST

View more comments

#34

80 per cent of 80 year old males or older will have suffered or will face prostate cancer at some point in his life.

Eighty. Percent.

patrickswayzemullet Report

Final score:

91points

POST

View more comments

#35

25% of the earths crust is actually made of iron like in your cereal.

thirdageofmen , Lottie Report

Final score:

73points

POST

View more comments

Continue reading with Bored Panda Premium

Unlimited content

Ad-free browsing

Dark mode

#36

The Vatican has 5.9 popes per square mile.

idiot900 , Ashwin Vaswani Report

Final score:

37points

POST

View more comments

#37

If you correctly shuffle a deck of cards, you'll create a configuration that has never existed, and likely never will again. This is because there are 8.1x10^67 possible arrangements for fifty-two cards, and getting through each of them would take longer than the lifespan of the universe.

RamsesThePigeon Report

Final score:

34points

POST

View more comments

#38

1) The biggest air force in the world is the United States Air Force. The second biggest is the United States Navy and Army combined.

2) It is generally accepted that the Air craft carrier is the most valuable and influential piece of war machinery because it allows you to wage a war from anywhere without putting civilians at risk.
As of 2016 the USA had 14 the next closest country had 2.

k1net1c5 Report

Final score:

34points

POST

View more comments

See Also on Bored Panda

Dutch Swimmer Goes Viral For Super Revealing Trunks During 2024 Olympics: “Is This Legal?”

Thrill-Seeking Diver Jumps Down Extreme Waterslide, Ignoring The Strict Ban For Women

#39

There are more barrels of bourbon in Kentucky than people.

Nealburt Report

Final score:

33points

POST

View more comments

#40

50% of our living US presidents have been accused of sexual harassment.

XiZus Report

Final score:

33points

POST

View more comments

#41

There are more employees at Walt Disney World (approx. 75,000) than coal miners in the United States (approx. 50,000).

jwilcoxwilcox Report

Final score:

32points

POST

View more comments

#42

Morbidly obese people cost their insurers significantly less than do fit people. The reason being that even though morbid obesity causes such a multitude of health problems, people die at such a relatively young age that they don’t have the chance to run up such a high tab.

OxfordBombers Report

Final score:

31points

POST

View more comments

#43

For a while, we were all a single cell. Now we have about 37 trillion of them.

lihamt Report

Final score:

30points

POST

View more comments

See Also on Bored Panda

Woman Put A Water Fountain With A Camera In Her Yard, Here Are 24 Photos Of Regular Visitors (New Pics)

“Ma’am I Live Here”: Woman Refuses To Back Out Of Driveway, Learns A Lesson The Hard Way

#44

Alaska takes up about 21% of the USA's total land area.

dancing_genitals Report

Final score:

29points

POST

View more comments

#45

If none of Wayne Gretzky's goals counted, his assists would still make him the all-time leading scorer in the NHL.

grumpy_meat Report

Final score:

28points

POST

View more comments

#46

In 110 years let’s say, every single person who is alive now will be dead. All of the big superstars and actors and whoever will be completely different people we don’t know. I was stoned out of my mind last night and I was thinking about that and it absolutely blew my f’ing mind.

actuallyfullydomein Report

Final score:

28points

POST

View more comments

#47

My History lecturer told us the other day that more US Soldiers [unalived] in the Civil war than US Soldiers have [unalived] in all other wars ever, combined.

deputy_doo_doo , Diego González Report

Final score:

27points

POST

View more comments

See Also on Bored Panda

50 Of The Most Incredible Shots That Were Submitted To The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

French Diver’s “Jewels” In Tight Swimming Trunks Become Talk Of The Town At Olympics

#48

If you're a man over 7 feet tall, there's a 17% chance you'll be in the NBA.

That's roughly 1 in 6.

BoringPersonAMA Report

Final score:

27points

POST

View more comments

#49

52% of white women voted Trump over Hillary.

flutterfly28 Report

Final score:

27points

POST

View more comments

#50

Black men have a 1/3 chance of being incarcerated at some point in their life time in the US

anon Report

Final score:

27points

POST

View more comments

#51

The average person has one ovary, one testicle, less than 2 arms.

mrwhibbley , ThisisEngineering RAEng Report

Final score:

27points

POST

View more comments

#52

Most people have fewer friends than their friends have, on average.

ASpiralKnight Report

Final score:

24points

POST

View more comments

#53

There are more planes in the oceans than there are submarines in the sky.

haileyscomet1066 Report

Final score:

24points

POST

View more comments

See Also on Bored Panda

Woman Moves Out Of Parents' Home After They Asked Her To Give Her Space To Brother, They Freak Out

Mom Leaves $250k Inheritance To Son, Throws A Fit When Daughter Stops Looking After Her

#54

More planes were shot down during World War II than there are registered aircraft in the world today.

anon Report

Final score:

22points

POST

View more comments

#55

The mass of all viruses in the ocean easily surpasses the mass of all living Elephants.

zikaBr Report

Final score:

21points

POST

View more comments

#56

Women on OKCupid only consider the top 7% of men to be above average in attractiveness, based on their pictures alone. They consider only the top 19% to be average or better. The biggest group in the stats was "moderately unattractive" with 31%. "Unattractive" starts at the 58% percentile, with 27% of men being "very unattractive."

Women recorded no men as "very attractive."

Zahn1138 Report

Final score:

20points

POST

View more comments

#57

More Americans than Canadians live north of Canada's southernmost point.

Doctor_Spicy Report

Final score:

18points

POST

View more comments

See Also on Bored Panda

Woman Refuses To Chip In For Babysitting Because She Doesn’t Even Have Kids, Asks If She’s A Jerk

“This Breaks My Heart”: People Stunned—And Angry—After Woman Buys Lost Luggage From Airport

#58

Cosmetic surgery - South Korea:

South Korean women, the most obsessed with cosmetic surgery, are among the world's women. Statistics show that one out of five women in South Korea has at least one cosmetic surgery, four times higher than women in the United States. As a result, South Korea's cosmetic surgeons have gained a reputation for driving around 7.5 million people to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, for cosmetic surgery.

meniptv Report

Final score:

15points

POST

View more comments

#59

One of the most dangerous occupations in the United States is President.

18% of Presidents have died while in office, half of those by assassination.

anon Report

Final score:

15points

POST

View more comments

#60

Despite making up a little less than 2% of the population, 44% of the billionaires in the US are Jewish.

rlrhino7 Report

Final score:

15points

POST

View more comments

#61

There are more people living in Dallas/Fort Worth than the entire state of Louisiana.

mirdster Report

Final score:

14points

POST

View more comments

See Also on Bored Panda

"I Didn't Start The Dryer": Karen Gets Taught A Lesson After Throwing Out Neighbor's Wet Clothes

Guy Divorced 3 Years Ago Drops Off 3 Y.O. With His Ex-Wife Completely Out Of The Blue

#62

IQ correlates more strongly with income than socioeconomic background.

vcxnuedc8j Report

Final score:

13points

POST

View more comments

#63

New Jersey hasn’t had a male Lt. Governor since 1757.

beaverteeth92 Report

Final score:

12points

POST

View more comments

#64

If you were to take the smallest cylinder of air completely surrounding the Eiffel Tower, the air itself would have more mass than the rest of the Tower.

Edit: Due to buoyant forces, it wouldn't exactly weigh more on Earth. However, it still has more mass. Also clarified the size of the cylinder.

GruntingCrunchy Report

Final score:

10points

POST

View more comments

#65

This is a bit technical, but let's say a test is given to detect HIV in a sample where 1% of the population has HIV. Let's say that 90% of those that got a positive result actually had HIV and 90% of those that got a negative result didn't have it. The cool part is that, with these statistics, if you took the test and were given a positive result, you would only have an 8.33% chance of actually having HIV! I'd explain the math but this is already long enough. This probably isn't that interesting to most but learning this in statistics blew my mind.

Roshkp Report

Final score:

9points

POST

View more comments

See Also on Bored Panda

“All Three Shot Out Pink”: Triplets' Baby Shower Turns Sour, Pregnant Wife Wants A Divorce

College Student Does Exactly As Told After Roommates Demand They Keep Their Stuff In Their Room

What do you think ?

Troux 2 years ago

Statistically speaking, this post has more facts than verifiable sources of those facts.

38points

Yvonne Dauwalder Balsiger 2 years ago

Can we pretty please include a link that supports that "fact"? Stuff like women talk more than man is BS: "A review of 56 studies conducted by linguistics researcher Deborah James and social psychologist Janice Drakich found only two studies showing that women talked more than men, while 34 studies found men talked more than women.[6] Sixteen of the studies found they talked the same and four showed no clear pattern." https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/marriage-equals/201910/do-women-really-talk-more-men

Mary Rogers 2 years ago

These are just Reddit posts. So take it with a grain of salt but it isn't BP's job to fact check them.

4points

Load More Replies...

Berdarien Brown 2 years ago

This article had so many false posts. It actually bothers me even if it's for entertainment that posting falsehoods is such a flippant thing.

6points

Adam Zad 2 years ago

47.1% of all quoted statistics are made up on the spot.

Dillon Brown 2 years ago

Huh, and here I was going around telling people it was 47.8%. Don't I just feel foolish now 😳

1point

Beck Mac 2 years ago

These facts are not new information. I've read them before. Some several times.

0points

35 Weird, Fascinating, And Disturbing Statistics About Pretty Much Everything

Games

Rokas Laurinavičius

Rokas Laurinavičius

Viktorija Ošikaitė

Viktorija Ošikaitė

Word Search

WordroW

Jigsaw

Crossword

Sudoku

Picdoku

Killer Sudoku

Kriss Kross

Word Flower