Post intriguing controversial or amazing statistics here.

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Post any stats which made you go wtf, and the source if available.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 12 November 2004 10:49 (twenty years ago)

1. 1. An estimated 20 million metric tons of lead was fired from American guns in the 20th century.

Source, Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Friday, 12 November 2004 10:50 (twenty years ago)

In the United States, Randy is the 78th most common male first name!

Approximate number of Randys is 284200 equalling 0.232% of the population. Most common is James

― ken c (ken c), Friday, 12 November 2004 11:08 (twenty years ago)

Increase in car ownership in China 2002-2003 81% (I think it was that, I can't get to check the time period, but it was scarily small)

2010 The year in which the Chinese language internet is projected to be bigger than the English one.

― 3underscore (___), Friday, 12 November 2004 11:13 (twenty years ago)

ken that is/you are AMAZING

intriguing stat: my head is yay big

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Friday, 12 November 2004 11:17 (twenty years ago)

The average baseball game has a total of 6 minutes of action.

Source: some blog I read a while ago.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 12 November 2004 11:22 (twenty years ago)

And people say cricket is boring.

(I heart baseball)

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 12 November 2004 11:32 (twenty years ago)

ken+another guardian reader
I got a fact
their are more human beings alive on the planet right now than have ever died, and the margin is huge.

― lukey (Lukey G), Friday, 12 November 2004 11:55 (twenty years ago)

Yeah - I have been reading the Guardian a lot this week, it has been good for facts. I am sure I have some others, but they are all financial stuff that won't interest folk.

― 3underscore (___), Friday, 12 November 2004 11:57 (twenty years ago)

Lukey, I think you've got it the wrong way round - I remember as a kid discovering that the dead outnumber the living 30 to 1.

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 12 November 2004 12:18 (twenty years ago)

Markelby is almost right, though the ratio isn't quite that big.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 12 November 2004 12:28 (twenty years ago)

7/13 is nearly the same as 53.8% !!

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 12 November 2004 12:32 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, but the article says that most demographers think the number of dead people is approximately 60 billion, which makes it 6/60 = ten times more dead people than living. There aren't 7 billion people on the planet yet.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Friday, 12 November 2004 12:36 (twenty years ago)

Bush will not be the first president since Hoover to have a net job loss at the end of his first term.

― don weiner, Friday, 12 November 2004 13:07 (twenty years ago)

For the smoking thread - communication between people is 68% visual, 23% in the intonation of the voice, and 9% content.

Which is why it is so easy for people to seem shitty with each other on message boards.

― 3underscore (___), Friday, 12 November 2004 13:14 (twenty years ago)

God, you don't have to be such a dick about it.

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 12 November 2004 13:15 (twenty years ago)

.. oh, sorry if that came across as angry...

― dave225 (Dave225), Friday, 12 November 2004 13:17 (twenty years ago)

Related to the baseball game one, the actual competitive time spent by the average top division sumo wrestler, who is fit to compete in all tournaments, in one year is about 12 minutes - average match length 8 seconds, 15 matches per basho, 6 bashos a year. A 12 minute working year will take some beating, I think.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 12 November 2004 13:50 (twenty years ago)

I got to eat more.

― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 12 November 2004 13:51 (twenty years ago)

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